ACTA

β⁺ Radioactive Nuclei Created During Proton Therapy

I. Skwira-Chalot^a, P. Sękowski^a, A. Taranienko^a, A. Spyra^a, T. Matulewicz^a, J. Swakoń^b, J. Matulewicz^c
^aFaculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
^bInstitute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 31-342 Kraków, Poland
^cNational Center for Nuclear Research, 05-400 Otwock-Świerk, Poland

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During proton therapy, the beam flux decreases due to inelastic interactions with nuclei. At the highest energies used in proton therapy, around 20% protons initiate nuclear reactions. This report presents the cross-section measurements of proton-induced production of three β⁺ emitters - ¹¹C, ¹³N, ¹⁵O - with half-lives between 2 and 20 min, using solid C, BN, and SiO₂ targets. Stacks of up to 15 targets were irradiated simultaneously with proton beams of kinetic energy below 58 MeV at the AIC-144 cyclotron of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences. The measured cross sections follow the excitation function obtained in the previous experiments, with uncertainty of a few percent.

DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.148.S128
topics: induced β⁺ radioactivity, proton therapy, decay spectroscopy, cross section of proton-induced reactions