Target Size Dependence of Spatial Resolution in Heavy Ion CT

In order to achieve the radiotherapy more precisely using highly energetic heavy charged particles, it is important to know the distribution of the electron density in a human body, which is highly related to the range of charged particles. We can directly obtain the 2-D distribution of the electron density in a sample from a heavy ion CT image. For this purpose, we have developed a heavy ion CT system using a broad beam. The performance, especially the position resolution, of this system is estimated in this work. All experiments were carried out using the heavy ion beam from the HIMAC. We have obtained the projection data of polyethylene samples with various sizes using He 150 MeV/u, C 290 MeV/u and Ne 400 MeV/u beams. The used targets are the cylinders of 40, 60 and 80 mm in diameter, each of them has a hole of 10 mm in diameter at the center of it. The dependence of the spatial resolution on the target size and the kinds of beams will be discussed.