Commissioning of low particle flux for proton beams at MedAustron

TL;DR

This paper details the commissioning of low particle flux settings for proton beams at MedAustron, enabling research applications with fluxes much lower than clinical therapy levels, using external detectors and alternative alignment methods.

Contribution

It introduces new low flux beam configurations for proton energies up to 800 MeV, expanding research capabilities beyond clinical operation parameters.

Findings

Successfully established three low flux settings for proton energies below 252.7 MeV.

Achieved low flux settings for 800 MeV protons with particle rates down to ~2x10^3 particles/sec.

Demonstrated beam position measurement without standard profile monitors at low flux levels.

Abstract

MedAustron is a synchrotron-based particle therapy centre located in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. It features three irradiation rooms for particle therapy, where proton beams with energies up to 252.7 MeV and carbon ions of up to 402.8 MeV/u are available for cancer treatment. In addition to the treatment rooms, MedAustron features a unique beamline exclusively for non-clinical research (NCR). This research beamline is also commissioned for proton energies up to 800 MeV, while available carbon ion energies correspond to the ones available in the clinical treatment rooms. Based on the requirements for particle therapy, all irradiation rooms offer particle rates of up to 10^9 particles/s for protons and 10^7 particles/s for carbon ions. However, for research purposes, lower particle fluxes are required and were therefore commissioned for the NCR beamline. Three particle flux settings with particle rates ranging from ~2.4x10^3 particles/s to ~5.2x10^6 particles/s were established for seven proton energies below 252.7 MeV. In addition to the particle rate, the spot sizes and beam energies were measured for these settings. Furthermore, three low flux settings for 800 MeV protons with particle rates ranging from ~2x10^3 particles/s to ~1.3x10^6 particles/s were commissioned. Since the commissioned low flux settings are in a regime well below the limits of the available standard beam diagnostics, setting up the beam under these new operational conditions entirely relied on the use of external detectors. Furthermore, a beam position measurement based alignment without using the standard beam profile monitors was performed for 800 MeV protons.