Optimizing the Feasibility of Polyvinyl Alcohol-Potassium Iodine Gel for Medical Dosimeter.

This work aims to improve the post stabilty of reusable potassium iodide hydrogel dosimter. A reusable and low-cost radiochromic dosimeter containing a gel matrix of polyvinyl alcohol, potassium iodide dye, froctose as reducing agent and glutaraldehyde as cross-linking agent was developed for dose calibration in radiotherapy. The gel samples were exposed to different absorbed doses using a medical linear acceleration. UV-Vis Spectrophotometry was utilized to investigate the changes in optical-properties of irradiated gels with regard to peak wavelength of 353 nm. The stability of the gel (one of the most limitation of using this dosimeter) was improved significantly by the addition of certain concentrations of dimethyl sulfoxide. The two-dimensional optical imaging system of charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera with a uniform RGB light-emitting-diode (LED) array source was used for diffusion coefficient purpose using two dimensional gel template. The value of diffusion coefficient reported is significant and highly reduced compared with other dosimeters reported in the literatures. Moreover, heating the improved gels to certain temperatures results in resetting their optical properties, which makes it possible to reuse for multiple times.

Field electron emission from tungsten micro-tips coated with various thicknesses of polystyrene nanolayers: Characteristics & analysis.

This paper studies and analyses the characteristics of cold field electron emission from uncoated polycrystalline tungsten tips before and after being coated with an insulating polystyrene layer of different thicknesses. The process of testing the samples has been carried out under high vacuum conditions (10-8 mbar). Uncoated tungsten tips were prepared using the electrochemical etching process. The current-voltage characteristics of the samples before and after being coated were presented and analysed using Murphy-Good plots. Scanning electron micrographs for the samples under investigation have been included. Additionally, the electron emission patterns, before and after the coating process have been included. This is to compare the obtained results and study the effect of the coating layer on the performance of the electron source. The results show significant improvements on the performance of the coated tungsten emitters in comparison with the uncoated emitters.

Improved Dose Response of N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide Gel Dosimeter with Calcium Chloride for Radiotherapy.

The impact of calcium chloride (CaCl2) on the performance of N-(hydroxymethyl)acrylamide (NHMA) polymer gel dosimeter is studied in this article. The dosimeter was exposed to doses of up to 10 Gy with radiation beam-energy of 10 MV and dose-rates of 300 cGy/min. The relaxation rate (R2) parameter was utilized to explore the performance of irradiated NHMAGAT gels. The dose response in terms of R2 increased from 0.29 to 0.63 Gy-1·s-1 with increasing calcium chloride concentration from 0 to 1000 mM. The results show no substantial impact of dose-rates as well as radiation energies on NHMAGAT samples. For the steadiness of irradiated NHMAGAT dosimeters, it was found that there is no apparent variation in R2 (less than ±3%; standard deviation) up to 3 days. The overall uncertainty of the gel dosimeter with calcium chloride is 4.96% (double standard deviation, 95% confidence level).