RESUMEN
Thulium-167 is a promising radionuclide for nuclear medicine applications with potential use for both diagnosis and therapy ("theragnostics") in disseminated tumor cells and small metastases, due to suitable gamma-line as well as conversion/Auger electron energies. However, adequate delivery methods are yet to be developed and accompanying radiobiological effects to be investigated, demanding the availability of 167Tm in appropriate activities and quality. We report herein on the production of radionuclidically pure 167Tm from proton-irradiated natural erbium oxide targets at a cyclotron and subsequent ion beam mass separation at the CERN-MEDICIS facility, with a particular focus on the process efficiency. Development of the mass separation process with studies on stable 169Tm yielded 65 and 60% for pure and erbium-excess samples. An enhancement factor of thulium ion beam over that of erbium of up to several 104 was shown by utilizing laser resonance ionization and exploiting differences in their vapor pressures. Three 167Tm samples produced at the IP2 irradiation station, receiving 22.8 MeV protons from Injector II at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), were mass separated with collected radionuclide efficiencies between 11 and 20%. Ion beam sputtering from the collection foils was identified as a limiting factor. In-situ gamma-measurements showed that up to 45% separation efficiency could be fully collected if these limits are overcome. Comparative analyses show possible neighboring mass suppression factors of more than 1,000, and overall 167Tm/Er purity increase in the same range. Both the actual achieved collection and separation efficiencies present the highest values for the mass separation of external radionuclide sources at MEDICIS to date.
RESUMEN
The ß--particle-emitting erbium-169 is a potential radionuclide toward therapy of metastasized cancer diseases. It can be produced in nuclear research reactors, irradiating isotopically-enriched 168Er2O3. This path, however, is not suitable for receptor-targeted radionuclide therapy, where high specific molar activities are required. In this study, an electromagnetic isotope separation technique was applied after neutron irradiation to boost the specific activity by separating 169Er from 168Er targets. The separation efficiency increased up to 0.5% using resonant laser ionization. A subsequent chemical purification process was developed as well as activity standardization of the radionuclidically pure 169Er. The quality of the 169Er product permitted radiolabeling and pre-clinical studies. A preliminary in vitro experiment was accomplished, using a 169Er-PSMA-617, to show the potential of 169Er to reduce tumor cell viability.
RESUMEN
We demonstrate a continuously tunable, multi-Stokes Raman laser operating in the visible range (420 - 600 nm). Full spectral coverage was achieved by efficiently cascading the Raman shifted output of a tunable, frequency-doubled Ti:Sapphire laser. Using an optimized hemi-spherical external Raman cavity composed only of a diamond crystal and a single reflecting mirror, producing high power output at high conversion efficiency (>60 % from pump to Stokes) for a broad range of wavelengths across the visible. Enhancement of the cascading was achieved by controlling the polarization state of the pump and Stokes orders. The Stokes outputs exhibited a linewidth of 11 ± 1 GHz for each order, resembling the pump laser linewidth, enabling its use for the intended spectroscopic applications. Furthermore, the Raman laser performance was demonstrated by applying it for the resonance excitation of atomic transitions in calcium.
RESUMEN
We demonstrate a highly efficient, tunable, â¼5 GHz linewidth diamond Raman laser operating at 479 nm. The diamond laser was pumped by a wavelength-tunable intracavity frequency-doubled titanium sapphire (Ti:Sapphire) laser operating at around 450 nm, at a repetition rate of 10 kHz with a pulse duration of 50 ns. The Raman resonator produced a continuously tunable output with high stability, high conversion efficiency (28%), and beam quality (M2<1.2). We also demonstrate that the linewidth and tunability of the pump laser is directly transferred to the Stokes output. Our results show that diamond Raman lasers offer great potential for spectroscopic applications, such as resonance laser ionization, in an all-solid-state platform.