Magnetography with superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensor arrays is a well-established technique for measuring subtle magnetic fields generated by physiological phenomena in the human body. Unfortunately, the SQUID-based systems have some limitations related to the need to cool them down with liquid helium. The room-temperature alternatives for SQUIDs are optically pumped magnetometers (OPM) operating in spin exchange relaxation-free (SERF) regime, which require a very low ambient magnetic field. The most common two-layer magnetically shielded rooms (MSR) with residual magnetic field of 50 nT may not be sufficiently magnetically attenuated and additional compensation of external magnetic field is required. A cost-efficient compensation system based on square Helmholtz coils was designed and successfully used for preliminary measurements with commercially available zero-field OPM. The presented setup can reduce the static ambient magnetic field inside a magnetically shielded room, which improves the usability of OPMs by providing a proper environment for them to operate, independent of initial conditions in MSR.
In this work, simplified recombination methods for routine estimation of dose equivalent in mixed (gamma and neutrons) radiation field outside the irradiation field of linear medical accelerators is considered. The author's earlier reported method of H(10) measurements, involving determination of the recombination index of radiation quality, Q(4) by tissue-equivalent recombination chamber was combined with the new method for determination of the photon to neutron dose ratio D(X)/D(n) from the ratio of ion collection efficiencies measured in the investigated radiation field and in two reference fields of gamma and neutron radiations. The method is suitable when the neutron contribution to the total absorbed dose, D(n)/D, is >3%.
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