• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.286-290
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• 2016

Background: Activation of air and water in the electron linear accelerator for medical use has not been considered severely. By the new Japanese regulation for protection of radiation hazard, it became indispensable to evaluate of activation of air and water in the accelerator room. The measurement of induced activity in air and water components in the electron energy region of 10 to 20 MeV is very difficult, because this energy region is close to the threshold energy region of photonuclear reactions. Then, we measured the photonuclear reaction yields of $^{13}N$, $^{15}O$, and $^{11}C$ by using the electron linear accelerator. Obtained data were compared with the data calculated by the Monte Carlo method. Materials and Methods: An activation experiment was performed at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University. Highly purified $SiO_2$, $Si_3N_4$, and carbon disks were irradiated for 10 minutes by bremsstrahlung converted by a tungsten plate. Induced activity from C, N, and O was obtained. Monte Carlo calculation was performed using MCNP5 and AERY (DCHAIN-SP) to simulate the experimental condition. Cross section data were adopted the KAERI dataset. Results and Discussion: In our experiment in hospital, calculated values were not agreed with experimental values. It might be three possible reasons as the cause of this deference, such as irradiation energy, calculation procedure and cross section data. Obtained data of this work, calculated and experimental values were good agreement with each other within one order. In this work, we used KAERI dataset of photonuclear reaction instead of JENDL. Therefore, it was found that the photonuclear cross section data of light elements are most important for yield calculation in these reactions. Conclusion: Further improvement for calculation using a new dataset JENDL/PD-2015 and considering electron energy spreading will be needed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.305-305
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• 2010

It is known that a pulse of electrons of high kinetic energy (1-3 eV) in metals can be generated with the deposition of external energy to the surface such as in the absorption of light or in exothermic chemical processes. These energetic electrons are not in thermal equilibrium with the metal atoms and are called "hot electrons" The concept of photon energy conversion to hot electron flow was suggested by Eric McFarland and Tang who directly measured the photocurrent on gold thin film of metal-semiconductor ($TiO_2$) Schottky diodes [1]. In order to utilize this scheme, we have fabricated metal-semiconductor Schottky diodes that are made of Pt or Au as a metallic layer, Si or $TiO_2$ as a semiconducting substrate. The Pt/$TiO_2$ and Pt/Si Schottky diodes are made by PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) for $SiO_2$, magnetron sputtering process for $TiO_2$, e-beam evaporation for metallic layers. Metal shadow mask is made for device alignment in device fabrication process. We measured photocurrent on Pt/n-Si diodes under AM1.5G. The incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) at different wavelengths was measured on the diodes. We also show that the steady-state flow of hot electrons generated from photon absorption can be directly probed with $Pt/TiO_2$ Schottky diodes [2]. We will discuss possible approaches to improve the efficiency of photon energy conversion.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

Purpose: A selection of proper energy in treatment planning is very important because of having different dose distribution in body as photon energy. In generally, the low energy photon has been used in intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for head and neck (H&N) cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of partially used high energy photon at posterior oblique fields on IMRT plan for H&N cancer. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 10 patients (nasopharyngeal cancer 5, tonsilar cancer 5) treated with IMRT in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. CT images were acquired 3 mm of thickness in the same condition and the treatment plan was performed by Eclipse (Ver.7.1, Varian, Palo Alto, USA). Two plans were generated under same planing objectives, dose volume constraints, and eight fields setting: (1) The low energy plan (LEP) created using 6 MV beam alone, (2) the partially used high energy plan (PHEP) created partially using 15 MV beam at two posterior oblique fields with deeper penetration depths, while 6 MV beam was used at the rest of fields. The plans for LEP and PHEP were compared in terms of coverage, conformity index (CI) and homogeneity index (HI) for planning target volume (PTV). For organs at risk (OARs), $D_{mean}$ and $D_{50%}$ were analyzed on both parotid glands and $D_{max}$, $D_{1%}$ for spinal cord were analyzed. Integral dose (ID) and total monitor unit (MU) were compared as addition parameters. For the comparing dose to normal tissue of posterior neck, the posterior-normal tissue volume (P-NTV) was set on the patients respectively. The $D_{mean}$, $V_{20Gy}$ and $V_{25Gy}$ for P-NTV were evaluated by using dose volume histogram (DVH). Results: The dose distributions were similar with regard to coverage, CI and HI for PTV between the LEP and PHEP. No evident difference was observed in the spinal cord. However, the $D_{mean}$, $D_{50%}$ for both parotid gland were slightly reduced by 0.6%, 0.7% in PHEP. The ID was reduced by 1.1% in PHEP, and total MU for PHEP was 1.8% lower than that for LEP. In the P-NTV, the $D_{mean}$, $V_{20Gy}$ and $V_{25Gy}$ of the PHEP were 1.6%, 1.8% and 2.9% lower than those of LEP. Conclusion: Dose to some OARs and a normal tissue, total monitor unit were reduced in IMRT plan with partially used high energy photon. Although these reduction are unclear how have a clinical benefit to patient, application of the partially used high energy photon could improve the overall plan quality of IMRT for head and neck cancer.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 1995

Lithium Fluoride (LiF; TLD-100) crystal chips are normally used as thermolu minescence dosimeters (abbreviated as NC-100) for estimating the absorbed dose to the skin of a patient or in a solid water phantom undergoing radiotherapy with megavoltage photon (6 and 15MV) beams. In general, investigation has revealed a reduction in the sensitivity of NC-100 chips after many runs through heating cycles. A TLD-100 chip laminated with gold plate (140${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) on the upper surface layer of its face toward the photon beam (abbreviated as GC-100) has properties different from that of a NC-100 chip activated by incident photons and contaminant electrons with various lower energies coming from the gantry head and air. Activation of the valence band electrons of GC-100 chips by incident photons, positrons and electrons-which come from the gold plate by mainly pair production process and partly from Compton scattering-results in more enhanced signal intensity, higher response per monitor unit, as well as a good linearity with monitor units and independence of dose rate. Since the electron beams (6 and 15 MeV) do not have the probability of pair production process with gold plate, there is only a small difference (about a 3.3％ increase for 15 MeV) in the signal gaps in the TL readout for electron beams between GC- and NC-100 chips. The 3.3％ increase is entirely due to the buildup caused by the 140 m gold plate. The sensitivity of GC-100 chips is much more susceptible to high energy photon beams than electron one because of pair production. The interaction of high energy photon with a material of high atomic number, such as the good plate in this case, results in a considerably significant probability of pair production. The gold plate on the NC-100 chips acts as not only an intensifier of their signals but also acts as a filter of contaminant electrons in therapeutic high energy X-ray beams.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.176-183
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• 2009

Maintenance on the water chamber of steam generator during outage in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has a likelihood of high radiation exposure to whole body of workers even short time period due to the high radiation exposure rates. In particular, it is expected that hands would receive the highest radiation exposure because of its contact with radiation materials. In this study, characteristic analysis of inhomogeneous radiation fields for contact operations was conducted using thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) readouts from the application tests of two-dosimeter algorithm to Korean NPPs in 2004. It is regarded that inhomogeneous radiation fields for contact operations in NPPs are dominated by high energy photons. In addition, field tests for workers who participated in maintenance on the steam generator during outage at Ulchin NPPs in 2009 and pressure tube replacement at Wolsong NPPs in 2009 were conducted to analyze radiation fields and to estimate the extremity dose. As a result, radiation fields were dominated by high energy photons.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2005

The energy spectra and dose calculations were performed for secondary neutrons from a 24 MV LINAC using MCNPX code (V2, 4, 0). The energy spectra for neutrons and photons emitted from the LINAC head, and absorbed dose to water were calculated in water phantom. The absorbed doses calculated with Monte Carlo were $0.66\~0.35$ mGy/photon Gy at the surface to d=5 cm, and calculated with interaction data was 0.52 mGy/photon Gy at the depth of electron equilibrium in water. We have shown that this work can be applied to dose estimation of neutrons from high energy LINAC through the comparison of our results with other results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.176-189
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• 2019

This paper presents a feasibility study for producing the medical isotope $^{99m}Tc$ using the hazardous and currently wasted radioisotope $^{99}Tc$. This can be achieved with the nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) phenomenon, which has recently been made applicable due to high-intensity laser Compton scattering (LCS) photons. In this work, 21 NRF energy states of $^{99}Tc$ have been identified as potential contributors to the photo-production of $^{99m}Tc$ and their NRF cross-sections are evaluated by using the single particle estimate model and the ENSDF data library. The evaluated cross sections are scaled using known measurement data for improved accuracy. The maximum LCS photon energy is adjusted in a way to cover all the significant excited states that may contribute to $^{99m}Tc$ generation. An energy recovery LINAC system is considered as the LCS photon source and the LCS gamma spectrum is optimized by adjusting the electron energy to maximize $^{99m}Tc$ photo-production. The NRF reaction rate for $^{99m}Tc$ is first optimized without considering the photon attenuations such as photo-atomic interactions and self-shielding due to the NRF resonance itself. The change in energy spectrum and intensity due to the photo-atomic reactions has been quantified using the MCNP6 code and then the NRF self-shielding effect was considered to obtain the spectrums that include all the attenuation factors. Simulations show that when a $^{99}Tc$ target is irradiated at an intensity of the order $10^{17}{\gamma}/s$ for 30 h, 2.01 Ci of $^{99m}Tc$ can be produced.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.37.3-37.3
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• 2008

STJ(Superconducting Tunnel Junction) technique offers next generation photon detectors exhibiting high energy resolution, high quantum efficiency and photon counting ability over the broad wavelength range from X-ray to NIR. We report the succcess in fabrication of Ta/Al-AlOx-Al/Ta and Nb/Al-AlOx-Al/Nb micro structure deposited on sapphire substrates using various techniques including UV photolithography, DC Sputtering, RIE, and PECVD technique. The characterization experiment was undertaken in an Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator at an operating temperature below 50mK. The details of experimental investigations for electrical characterization of STJ of $20\sim80{\mu}m$ in side-lengths are discussed. The measured I-V curves were used to derive The detector performance indicators such as energy gap, energy resolution, normal resistance, normal resistivity, dynamic resistance, dynamic resistivity, and quality factor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.228-231
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• 2006

This paper briefly introduces silicon based thin film solar cells: amorphous (a-Si:H), microcrystalline ${\mu}c-Si:H$ single junction and $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells. The major difference of a-Si:H and ${\mu}c-Si:H$ cells comes from electro-optical properties of intrinsic Si-films (active layer) that absorb incident photon and generate electron-hole pairs. The a-Si:H film has energy band-gap (Eg) of 1.7-1.8eV and solar cells incorporating this wide Eg a-Si:H material as active layer commonly give high voltage and low current, when illuminated, compared to ${\mu}c-Si:H$ solar cells that employ low Eg (1.1eV) material. This Eg difference of two materials make possible tandem configuration in order to effectively use incident photon energy. The $a-Si:H/{\mu}c-Si:H$ tandem solar cells, therefore, have a great potential for low cost photovoltaic device by its various advantages such as low material cost by thin-film structure on low cost substrate instead of expensive c-Si wafer and high conversion efficiency by tandem structure. In this paper, the structure, process and operation properties of Si-based thin-film solar cells are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.71-74
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• 2002

Currently small and accurate dosimeters are on the rise. In this study, the feasibility and energy dependency of the electret dosimeter that made of PET (polyethylene terephtalate) were observed by irradiating 4, 6, 15 MV photon beams from the clinical linear accelerator to develop a dosimeter for the clinical field. $10{\times}10cm$ field size of the photon beams were irradiated to the electret dosimeter where the 2.5 cm depth in the polystylene phantom from 100 cm SSD, while 300 DCV was applied to the electret dosimeter. The result showed that the absorbed dose was proportional to the charge linearly, and the volume of a dosimeter could be reduced and the signals were high enough. According to this study, it was found that the polymer electret detector could be produced as a large quantity with a small cost and showed the feasibility of a realtime measurement.