Quantitative read-out of Al2O3:C,Mg-based fluorescent nuclear track detectors using a commercial confocal microscope

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to use a commercial confocal microscope to quantitatively measure energy loss in Al2O3:C,Mg-based fluorescent nuclear track detectors, advancing their application in ion-beam therapy research.

Contribution

It introduces a method for quantitative read-out of FNTDs using a standard confocal microscope, enabling precise energy loss assessments.

Findings

Successful calibration of FNTDs with confocal microscopy

Ability to estimate LET from fluorescence signals

Potential for improved ion-beam dosimetry

Abstract

Fluorescent nuclear track detectors (FNTD) show great potential for applications in ion-beam therapy research, such as dosimetry, advanced beam characterization, in-vivo use or as radiobiological assay. A essential feature of FNTDs is their ability to assess the energy loss of single ions yielding for example LET estimations. This article describes the basic characterisations of FNTDs and our read-out system (a Zeiss LSM710 confocal laser scanning microscope) to enable quantative measurements of energy loss.