Microdosimetry

Abstract

The interest in the application of microdosimetry for assessing the radiation quality of hadrontherapy fields has grown in the last two decades. The reference detector for microdosimetry is the tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC). Novel types of microdosimeters have been developed by the Nuclear Measurement Laboratory of the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the INFN National Legnaro Laboratories. This work describes the main features of an avalanche confinement TEPC, capable of simulating sites down to 25 nm and a silicon telescope detector. The main dosimetric and microdosimetric quantities are also given and discussed in the Introduction for the sake of clarity.