An out-of-yoke irradiation setup using the proton beam from a cyclotron that ordinary produces radioisotopes for positron emission tomography (PET) has been developed, characterized, calibrated and validated. The current from a 20 µm thick aluminum transmission foil is readout by home-made transimpedance electronics, providing online dose information. The main monitoring variables, delivered in real-time, include beam current, integrated charge and dose rate. Hence the dose and integrated current delivered at a given instant to an experimental setup can be computercontrolled with a shutter. In this work, we report on experimental results and Geant4 simulations of a setup which exploits for the first time the 18 MeV proton beam from a PET cyclotron to irradiate a selected region of a target using the developed irradiation system. By using this system, we are able to deliver a homogeneous beam on targets with 18 mm diameter, allowing to achieve the controlled irradiation of cell cultures located in biological multi-well dishes of 16 mm diameter. We found that the magnetic field applied inside the cyclotron plays a major role for achieving the referred to homogeneity. The quasi-Gaussian curve obtained by scanning the magnet current and measuring the corresponding dose rate must be measured before any irradiation procedure, with the shutter closed. At the optimum magnet current, which corresponds to the center of the Gaussian, a homogenous dose is observed over the whole target area. Making use of a rotating disk with a slit of 0.5 mm at a radius of 150 mm, we could measure dose rates on target ranging from 500 mGy/s down to 5 mGy/s. For validating the developed irradiation setup, several Gafchromic R EBT2 films were exposed to different values of dose. The absolute dose in the irradiated films were assessed in the 2D film dosimetry system of the Department of Radiotherapy of Coimbra University Hospital Center with a precision better than 2%. In the future, we plan to irradiate small animals, cell cultures, or other materials or samples.

The biomedical community has asked CERN to investigate the possibility to transform the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) accelerator into a multidisciplinary, biomedical research facility (BioLEIR) that could provide ample, high-quality beams of a range of light ions suitable for clinically oriented, fundamental research on cell cultures and for radiation instrumentation development. The present LEIR machine uses fast beam extraction to the next accelerator in the chain, eventually leading to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). To provide beam for a biomedical research facility, a new slow extraction system must be installed. Two horizontal and one vertical experimental beamlines were designed for transporting the extracted beam to three experimental end-stations. The vertical beamline (pencil beam) was designed for a maximum energy of 75 MeV/u for low-energy radiobiological research, while the two horizontal beamlines could deliver up to 440 MeV/u. One horizontal beamline shall be used preferentially for biomedical experiments and shall provide pencil beam and a homogeneous broad beam, covering an area of 5 × 5 cm 2 with a beam homogeneity of ±5%. The second horizontal beamline will have pencil beam only and is intended for hardware developments in the fields of (micro-)dosimetry and detector development. The minimum full aperture of the beamlines is approximately 100 mm at all magnetic elements, to accommodate the expected beam envelopes. Seven dipoles and twenty quadrupoles are needed for a total of 65 m of beamlines to provide the specified beams. In this paper we present the optical design for the three beamlines.

Abstract. To advance our understanding of the effect of wave-particle interactions on ion outflows in the polar wind region and the resulting ion heating and escape from low altitudes to higher altitudes, we carried out a comparison between polar wind simulations obtained using Barghouthi model with corresponding observations obtained from different satellites. The Barghouthi model describes O + and H + outflows in the polar wind region in the range 1.7 R E to 13.7 R E , including the effects of gravity, polarization electrostatic field, diverging geomagnetic field lines, and waveparticle interactions. Wave-particle interactions were included into the model by using a particle diffusion equation, which depends on diffusion coefficients determined from estimates of the typical electric field spectral density at relevant altitudes and frequencies. We provide a formula for the velocity diffusion coefficient that depends on altitude and velocity, in which the velocity part depends on the perpendicular wavelength of the electromagnetic turbulence λ ⊥ . Because of the shortage of information about λ ⊥ , it was included into the model as a parameter. We produce different simulations (i.e. ion velocity distributions, ions density, ion drift velocity, ion parallel and perpendicular temperatures) for O + and H + ions, and for different λ ⊥ . We discuss the simulations in terms of wave-particle interactions, perpendicular adiabatic cooling, parallel adiabatic cooling, mirror force, and ion potential energy. The main findings of the simulations are as follows: (1) O + ions are highly energized at all altitudes in the simulation tube due to wave-particle interactions that heat the ions in the perpendicular direction, and part of this gained energy transfer to the parallel direction by mirror force, resulting in accelerating O + ions along geomagnetic field lines from lower altitudes to higher altitudes.(2) The effect of wave-particle interactions is negligible for Correspondence to: I. A. Barghouthi (barghouthi@science.alquds.edu) H + ions at altitudes below ∼7 R E , while it is important for altitudes above 7 R E . For O + wave particle interaction is very significant at all altitudes. (3) For certain λ ⊥ and at points, altitudes, where the ion gyroradius is equal to or less than λ ⊥ , the effect of wave-particle interactions is independent of the velocity and it depends only on the altitude part of the velocity diffusion coefficient; however, the effect of waveparticle interactions reduce above that point, called saturation point, and the heating process turns to be self-limiting heating. (4) The most interesting result is the appearance of O + conics and toroids at low altitudes and continue to appear at high altitudes; however, they appear at very high altitudes for H + ions. We compare quantitatively and qualitatively between the simulation results and the corresponding observations. As a result of many comparisons, we find that the best agreement occurs when λ ⊥ equals to 8 km. The quantitative comparisons show that ma...

The number of cyclotrons capable of accelerating protons to about 20 MeV is increasing throughout the world. Originally aiming at the production of positron emission tomography (PET) radionuclides, some of these facilities are equipped with several beam lines suitable for scientific research. Radiobiology, radiophysiology, and other dosimetric studies can be performed using these beam lines. In this work, we measured the Bragg peak of the protons from a PET cyclotron using a stacked target consisting of several aluminum foils interleaved with polyethylene sheets, readout by in-house made transimpedance electronics. The measured Bragg peak is consistent with simulations performed using the SRIM/TRIM simulation toolkit. Furthermore, we report on experimental results aiming at measuring proton beam currents down to 10 pA using a thin aluminum foil (20-µm-thick). The aluminum was chosen for this task because it is radiation hard, it has low density and low radiation activity, and finally because it is easily available at negligible cost. This method allows for calculating the dose delivered to a target during an irradiation with high efficiency, and with minimal proton energy loss and scattering.