TY - JOUR
T1 - Equivalence of pure propane and propane TE gases for microdosimetric measurements
AU - Chiriotti Alvarez, Sabina
AU - Moro, Davide
AU - Colautti, Paolo
AU - Conte, Valeria
A2 - Vanhavere, Filip
A2 - Mihailescu, Cristian
N1 - Score = 10
PY - 2015/5/4
Y1 - 2015/5/4
N2 - A tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) simulates micrometric volumes of tissue, if the energy deposited in the counter cavity is the same as that in the tissue volume. Nevertheless, a TEPC measures only the ionizations created in the gas, which are later converted into imparted energy. Therefore, the equivalence of the simulated diameter in two gases should be based on the equality of the mean number of ions pairs in the gas rather than on the imparted energy. Propane-based tissue equivalent gas is the most commonly used gas mixture at present but it has the drawback that its composition may change with time. From this point of view, the use of pure propane offers practical advantages: higher gas gain and longer stability. In this work, microdosimetric measurements performed with pure propane, at site sizes between 0.05 mg/cm2 and 0.3 mg/cm2, demonstrate that the response of a propane-filled detector in gamma and in neutron fields is almost the same if an appropriate gas density is used.
AB - A tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) simulates micrometric volumes of tissue, if the energy deposited in the counter cavity is the same as that in the tissue volume. Nevertheless, a TEPC measures only the ionizations created in the gas, which are later converted into imparted energy. Therefore, the equivalence of the simulated diameter in two gases should be based on the equality of the mean number of ions pairs in the gas rather than on the imparted energy. Propane-based tissue equivalent gas is the most commonly used gas mixture at present but it has the drawback that its composition may change with time. From this point of view, the use of pure propane offers practical advantages: higher gas gain and longer stability. In this work, microdosimetric measurements performed with pure propane, at site sizes between 0.05 mg/cm2 and 0.3 mg/cm2, demonstrate that the response of a propane-filled detector in gamma and in neutron fields is almost the same if an appropriate gas density is used.
KW - TEPC
KW - propane TE
KW - pure propane
KW - microdosimetry
UR - http://ecm.sckcen.be/OTCS/llisapi.dll/open/ezp_139501
UR - http://knowledgecentre.sckcen.be/so2/bibref/12865
U2 - 10.1093/rpd/ncv293
DO - 10.1093/rpd/ncv293
M3 - Article
SN - 0144-8420
VL - 165
SP - 1
EP - 5
JO - Radiation protection dosimetry
JF - Radiation protection dosimetry
IS - 1-4
T2 - MICROS-2013 16th Intern. Symposium on Microdosimetry
Y2 - 20 October 2013 through 25 October 2013
ER -