Stray radiation produced in FLASH electron beams characterized by the MiniPIX Timepix3 Flex detector

TL;DR

This study uses the Timepix3 detector to characterize secondary radiation produced by ultra high dose rate pulsed electron beams, providing insights into their composition, spatial distribution, and dose rates.

Contribution

It introduces a compact hybrid detector capable of detailed spectrometric and dosimetric measurements of high flux pulsed electron fields.

Findings

Successful measurement of individual UHDpulses

Estimation of particle flux and scattered dose rates

Demonstration of in situ measurement capability

Abstract

This work aims to characterize ultra high dose rate pulses (UHDpulse) electron beams using the hybrid semiconductor pixel detector. The Timepix3 (TPX3) ASIC chip was used to measure the composition, spatial, time, and spectral characteristics of the secondary radiation fields from pulsed 15 to 23 MeV electron beams. The challenge is to develop a single compact detector that could extract spectrometric and dosimetric information on such high flux short pulsed fields. For secondary beam measurements, PMMA plates of 1 and 8 cm thickness were placed in front of the electron beam, with a pulse duration of 3.5 microseconds. Timepix3 detectors with silicon sensors of 100 and 500 micrometers thickness were placed on a shifting stage allowing for data acquisition at various lateral positions to the beam axis. The use of the detector in FLEXI configuration enables suitable measurements in situ and minimal self shielding. Preliminary results highlight both the technique and the detector's ability to measure individual UHDpulses of electron beams delivered in short pulses. In addition, the use of the two signal chains per pixel enables the estimation of particle flux and the scattered dose rates (DRs) at various distances from the beam core, in mixed radiation fields.