Pulse-Width-Specific Phase Space Informed Universal Beam Modeling for UHDR electron LINAC in FLASH-RT

TL;DR

This study develops a pulse-width-specific phase space modeling approach for UHDR electron LINAC in FLASH-RT, enabling accurate, efficient beam parameter prediction across pulse widths.

Contribution

It introduces a universal, regression-based methodology for modeling pulse width effects on beam quality, reducing computational effort while maintaining clinical accuracy.

Findings

Mean energy decreases exponentially with pulse width (R^2=0.99).

Energy spread increases quadratically with pulse width (R^2=0.99).

Validation shows beam shifts are aperture-independent and within clinical tolerances.

Abstract

Commercial treatment planning systems for electron FLASH radiotherapy are unavailable, and the dosimetric precision required for ultra-high dose rate delivery makes Monte Carlo (MC) simulation the gold standard approach. This work establishes a methodology for generating pulse-width-specific phase space (PHSP) files for the Mobetron UHDR system (9 MeV), accounting for systematic beam quality shifts caused by RF waveguide loading across pulse widths of 1.2-4.0 microsecond. Using GAMOS 6.2.0, source parameters were iteratively refined against experimental targets: mean energy was optimized by matching phantom-measured R50 in the fall-off region, while energy spread was refined using surface dose and build-up gradients. Relationships derived from a mid-range 6 cm aperture were applied across all clinical configurations (2.5-10 cm) to test the aperture-independence of beam loading effects. Mean energy decreased exponentially from 9.58 to 9.04 MeV (R^2=0.99) with increasing pulse width, while energy spread increased quadratically (R^2=0.99), with a strong negative correlation (r=-0.98). Cross-aperture validation confirmed that energy shifts are independent of downstream collimation. The geometric mean pulse width (2.28 microsecond) was evaluated as a universal clinical reference, yielding 9.32 MeV mean energy. Across experimental extremes, R50 deviations were within 1.3 mm and critical depth-dose parameters remained within 2.0 mm, meeting AAPM TG-106 tolerances. Validated regression models enable beam parameter prediction at arbitrary pulse widths, and the universal reference reduces computational burden by 75% while maintaining clinical accuracy.