Table Of ContentTable of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Quantities and Symbols1
Roman letter symbols
Greek letter symbols
Mathematical symbols
Acronyms
Chapter 1: Background and Essentials
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Types and Sources of Ionizing Radiation
1.3 Consequences of the Random Nature of Radiation
1.4 Interaction Cross Sections
1.5 Kinematic Relativistic Expressions
1.6 Atomic Relaxations
1.7 Evaluation of Uncertainties
Exercises
Chapter 2: Charged-Particle Interactions with Matter
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Types of Charged-Particle Interactions
2.3 Elastic Scattering
2.4 Inelastic Scattering and Energy Loss
2.5 Radiative Energy Loss: Bremsstrahlung
2.6 Total Stopping Power
2.7 Range of Charged Particles
2.8 Number and Energy Distributions of Secondary Particles
2.9 Nuclear Stopping Power and Interactions by Heavy Charged Particles
2.10 The W-Value (Mean Energy to Create an Ion Pair)
2.11 Addendum – Derivation of Expressions for the Elastic and Inelastic Scattering
of Heavy Charged Particles
Exercises
Chapter 3: Uncharged-Particle Interactions with Matter
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Photon Interactions with Matter
3.3 Photoelectric Effect
3.4 Thomson Scattering
3.5 Rayleigh Scattering (Coherent Scattering)
3.6 Compton Scattering (Incoherent Scattering)
3.7 Pair Production and Triplet Production
3.8 Positron Annihilation
3.9 Photonuclear Interactions
3.10 Photon Interaction Coefficients
3.11 Neutron Interactions
Exercises
Chapter 4: Field and Dosimetric Quantities, Radiation Equilibrium – Definitions and
Inter-Relations
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Stochastic and Non-stochastic Quantities
4.3 Radiation Field Quantities and Units
4.4 Distributions of Field Quantities
4.5 Quantities Describing Radiation Interactions
4.6 Dosimetric Quantities
4.7 Relationships Between Field and Dosimetric Quantities
4.8 Radiation Equilibrium (RE)
4.9 Charged-Particle Equilibrium (CPE)
4.10 Partial Charged-Particle Equilibrium (PCPE)
4.11 Summary of the Inter-Relations between Fluence, Kerma, Cema, and Dose
4.12 Addendum – Example Calculations of (Net) Energy Transferred and Imparted
Exercises
Chapter 5: Elementary Aspects of the Attenuation of Uncharged Particles
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Exponential Attenuation
5.3 Narrow-Beam Attenuation
5.4 Broad-Beam Attenuation
5.5 Spectral Effects
5.6 The Build-up Factor
5.7 Divergent Beams – The Inverse Square Law
5.8 The Scaling Theorem
Exercises
Chapter 6: Macroscopic Aspects of the Transport of Radiation Through Matter
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Radiation Transport Equation Formalism
6.3 Introduction to Monte Carlo Derived Distributions
6.4 Electron Beam Distributions
6.5 Protons and Heavier Charged-Particle Beam Distributions
6.6 Photon Beam Distributions
6.7 Neutron Beam Distributions
Exercises
Chapter 7: Characterization of Radiation Quality
7.1 Introduction
7.2 General Aspects of Radiation Spectra. Mean Energy
7.3 Beam Quality Specification for Kilovoltage x-ray Beams
7.4 Megavoltage Photon Beam Quality Specification
7.5 High-Energy Electron Beam Quality Specification
7.6 Beam Quality Specification of Protons and Heavier Charged Particles
7.7 Energy Spectra Determination
Exercises
Chapter 8: The Monte Carlo Simulation of the Transport of Radiation Through Matter
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Basics of the Monte Carlo Method (MCM)
8.3 Simulation of Radiation Transport
8.4 Monte Carlo Codes and Systems in the Public Domain
8.5 Monte Carlo Applications in Radiation Dosimetry
8.6 Other Monte Carlo Developments
Exercises
Chapter 9: Cavity Theory
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Cavities That Are Small Compared to Secondary Electron Ranges
9.3 Stopping-Power Ratios
9.4 Cavities That Are Large Compared to Electron Ranges
9.5 General or Burlin Cavity Theory
9.6 The Fano Theorem
9.7 Practical Detectors: Deviations from ‘Ideal’ Cavity Theory Conditions
9.8 Summary and Validation of Cavity Theory
Exercises
Chapter 10: Overview of Radiation Detectors and Measurements
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Detector Response and Calibration Coefficient
10.3 Absolute, Reference, and Relative Dosimetry
10.4 General Characteristics and Desirable Properties of Detectors
10.5 Brief Description of Various Types of Detectors
10.6 Addendum – The Role of the Density Effect and I-Values in the Medium-to-
Water Stopping-Power Ratio
Exercises
Chapter 11: Primary Radiation Standards
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Free-Air Ionization Chambers
11.3 Primary Cavity Ionization Chambers
11.4 Absorbed-Dose Calorimeters
11.5 Fricke Chemical Dosimeter
11.6 International Framework for Traceability in Radiation Dosimetry
11.7 Addendum – Experimental Derivation of Fundamental Dosimetric Quantities
Exercises
Chapter 12: Ionization Chambers
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Types of Ionization Chamber
12.3 Measurement of Ionization Current
12.4 Ion Recombination
12.5 Addendum – Air Humidity in Dosimetry
Exercises
Chapter 13: Chemical Dosimeters
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Radiation Chemistry in Water
13.3 Chemical Heat Defect
13.4 Ferrous Sulfate Dosimeters
13.5 Alanine Dosimetry
13.6 Film Dosimetry
13.7 Gel Dosimetry
Exercises
Chapter 14: Solid-State Detector Dosimetry
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Thermoluminescence Dosimetry
14.3 Optically-Stimulated Luminescence Dosimeters
14.4 Scintillation Dosimetry
14.5 Semiconductor Detectors for Dosimetry
Exercises
Chapter 15: Reference Dosimetry for External Beam Radiation Therapy
15.1 Introduction
15.2 A Generalized Formalism
15.3 Practical Implementation of Formalisms
15.4 Quantities Entering into the Various Formalisms
15.5 Accuracy of Radiation Therapy Reference Dosimetry
15.6 Addendum–Perturbation Correction Factors
Exercises
Chapter 16: Dosimetry of Small and Composite Radiotherapy Photon Beams
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Overview
16.3 The Physics of Small Megavoltage Photon Beams
16.4 Dosimetry of Small Beams
16.5 Detectors for Small-Beam Dosimetry
16.6 Dosimetry of Composite Fields
16.7 Addendum—Measurement in Plastic Phantoms
Exercises
Chapter 17: Reference Dosimetry for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Specific Quantities and Units
17.3 Formalism for Reference Dosimetry
17.4 Quantities Entering into the Formalism
Exercises
Chapter 18: Absorbed Dose Determination for Radionuclides
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Radioactivity Quantities and Units
18.3 Dosimetry of Unsealed Radioactive Sources
18.4 Dosimetry of Sealed Radioactive Sources
18.5 Addendum–The Reciprocity Theorem for Unsealed Radionuclide Dosimetry
Exercises
Chapter 19: Neutron Dosimetry
19.1 Introduction
19.2 Neutron Interactions in Tissue and Tissue-Equivalent Materials
19.3 Neutron Sources
19.4 Principles of Mixed-Field Dosimetry
19.5 Neutron Detectors
19.6 Reference Dosimetry of Neutron Radiotherapy Beams
Exercises
Appendix A: Data Tables
A.1 Fundamental and Derived Physical Constants
A.2 Data of Elements
A.3 Data for Compounds and Mixtures
A.4 Atomic Binding Energies for Elements
A.5 Atomic Fluorescent X-ray Mean Energies and Yields for Elements
A.6 Interaction Data for Electrons and Positrons (Electronic Form)
A.9 Neutron Kerma Coefficients (Electronic Form)
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1: Background and Essentials
Figure 1.1 Illustration of the quantities used in the definition of interaction cross
sections.
Figure 1.2 Triangular mnemonic rule relating the total energy, , rest energy,
, and momentum (in units of ) of a particle.
Figure 1.3 Shell binding energies for the K-, L-, M-, and N-shells as a function of
atomic number (see Appendix A).
Figure 1.4 Schematic illustration of the non-radiative transitions Auger (a),
Coster–Kronig (b), and Super Coster–Kronig (c). In an Auger transition, an
electron is ejected from a higher shell; the transition shown is K–L –L . In a
1 2
Coster–Kronig transition, a vacancy in any subshell is filled by an electron in a
higher subshell in the same shell, with the ejection of an electron from a
higher shell (L –L –M shown). In a Super Coster–Kronig transition, the electron
1 3 1
is ejected from the same shell (M –M –M shown).
1 2 4
Figure 1.5 Radiative (filled circles and lines) and non-radiative (open circles)
relaxation spectra from the K shell for aluminium (Z = 13, a and c) and tungsten (Z
= 74, b and d). (a) and (c) show the probabilities of a given emission per initial
vacancy, where the legends indicate the percentage of the element binding energy
taken by all x rays and Auger electrons. (c) and (d) illustrate the percentage of
for each individual emission, showing that in low-Z elements most of the binding
energy fraction corresponds to non-radiative emissions, whereas for high-Z
elements, the highest fraction corresponds to radiative transitions.
Figure 1.6 (a) Fluorescence yield, Ω , and average fraction of fluorescent events
i
(strictly, fractional participation in the photoelectric effect), P, by K-, L-, and M-
i
shells; note that . (b) Mean fluorescence x-ray energies, (solid lines),
in the K-, L1-, and M1-shells; for comparison, the binding energies, are also
shown (dashed lines).
Chapter 2: Charged-Particle Interactions with Matter
Figure 2.1 Electron and photon total cross sections (a) and mean free paths (b) in
carbon and lead, solid and dashed lines, respectively.
Figure 2.2 Simplified diagram of the main types of interactions of charged particles
with an atom, depending on the impact parameter, b, relative to the atomic radius,
r . Illustrated are inelastic interactions of the type hard (a) and soft (b), where
a
and , respectively, and inelastic radiative (c) and elastic interactions
(d), where .
Figure 2.3 Ratio of the small-angle approximation of the Rutherford DCS, Eq.
(2.8), to the general expression for any angle given by Eq. (2.7). At the ratio is
around 35%.
Figure 2.4 Electron–atom total elastic cross section for the indicated elements, air
(circles) and water (filled circles), as a function of the electron kinetic energy.
Figure 2.5 Definition of the polar angle, θ, and the projected angles θ and θ , for a
x y
particle initially traveling in the direction of the z-axis.
Figure 2.6 Minimum and maximum scattering angles, and , for the
integration of the mean square scattering angle for electrons and protons, for
elements with atomic number Z = 1 (dotted), 3, 6, 13, 26, 50, 79, and 100 (dashed),
as a function of the kinetic energy.
Figure 2.7 Variation of the ratio of the maximum and minimum scattering angles,
, for atomic numbers between Z = 1 and 100 when .
Figure 2.8 Graphical representation of the functions (Gaussian), ,
and in the multiple scattering theory of Molière. See Table 2.1 for the
numerical values.
Figure 2.9 Angular distributions of 15.7 MeV electrons transmitted through gold
foils of the indicated thickness (they correspond, respectively, to 49 and 99 elastic
collisions approximately). The continuous curves are for Goudsmit–Saunderson
distributions calculated with partial-wave analysis DCSs; the dashed curves are
distributions computed from Molière's theory. Symbols are the experimental
results from Hanson et al. (1951).
Figure 2.10 Energy (a) and atomic number (b) dependence of the mass scattering
power for electrons. In (a) data for elements with atomic number Z = 3 (dotted), 6,
13, 26, 50, 79, and 100 (dashed) are shown. Note that in (b) the ordinate axis shows
multiplied by the squared kinetic energy, E .
2
Figure 2.11 The GOS for ionization of the hydrogen atom (Z = 1) in the ground
state. All energies are in units of the first ionization energy eV
(www.nist.gov/pml/data/ion_energy.cfm), including those of the z-axis. The GOS
for ionization of (non-relativistic) hydrogenic ions is independent of Z if energies
are expressed in units of the first ionization energy.
Figure 2.12 Soft and hard terms of the electronic stopping power of protons in
aluminium using a cut-off value keV. At very high energies both terms
approach a common value in their contribution to the stopping power
(equipartition).
Figure 2.13 Ratio of the relativistic to the non-relativistic expressions for the
electronic stopping power of protons in carbon and uranium. The relativistic rise is
