We propose a novel detector for quality assurance in hadron therapy, for which an accurate dose calculation and verification with high spatial accuracy are required. For this purpose, a promising tool is the GEMPix detector, which combines a triple GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) and a quad Timepix ASIC used as highly pixelated readout. The GEMPix (active area 28x28 mm$^2$) is capable of...
A compact scintillation detector system based on SiPM and GAGG:Ce crystals has been developed to provide a small $\gamma$-spectroscopy system for the deployment in pipe-work with suspected nuclear contamination. The sensor also shows very good performance in the detection of $\beta$-particles.
An energy resolution of 7% for $E_\gamma=662 keV$ has been achieved with a peak-to-total ratio of...
Advanced imaging and treatment techniques in proton therapy allow conformal high dose irradiation of the target volume with high precision using pencil beam scanning or beam shaping apertures. These irradiation methods increasingly include small radiation fields with large dose gradients at the edges, which require the development of new micro dosimetry systems with precise spatial resolution...
Due to the advantageous characteristics of charged particles' energy deposition
in matter, proton or $^{12}$C beams are used to treat deep-seated solid tumors.
Using these beams, the maximum of the dose is released to the tumor tissues at
the end of the beam range, in the Bragg peak region. In this process
nevertheless, fragmentation of both projectile and target nuclei can occur
in the...
Proton radiotherapy uses beams of protons to treat cancer. In Proton radiotherapy the dose can be localised to the cancer volume with a reduced dose to healthy tissue caused by the incident beam, and almost no dose downstream. Novel ways of delivering the dose during proton radiotherapy are under development, two such techniques form the basis of this work. The first is FLASH proton therapy,...
In our group there are several gaseous detectors in development based on a highly granular pixel ASIC (Timepix/Timepix3) and a MicroMegas gas amplification stage (InGrid). The MicroMegas is aligned with the pixel structure so that one grid hole is directly above one pixel. The combination of the Timepix and the InGrid is called GridPix. Its advantage is its high granularity combined with low...
Proton radiotherapy offers an improved healthy tissue to tumour ratio compared with conventional x-ray radiotherapy when treating certain forms of cancer. Conversion from x-ray CT to proton stopping powers can lead to uncertainties in the dose delivery of >3%. The development of proton CT to directly measure the stopping powers has proven very promising over the last five years. With the move...
Thermal neutrons are used in different fields as archaeology, cancer therapy, material science or fundamental particle physics. To enhance capabilities of neutron facilities, the development of high precision thermal neutron detectors and their readout electronics is indispensable. Due to Helium-3 shortage, new detector concepts are sought.
The Bonn group transfers well-understood...
The CUORE experiment operates 742 kg of TeO$_2$ crystals as cryogenic bolometers at ~10 mK. The CUORE cryostat – the today’s largest mK infrastructure in the world – provides the cooling power at 4 K by mean of five Pulse Tube (PT) cryocoolers. The success of the experiment stands on the capability to mitigate the mechanical vibrations, which can significantly spoil the detector energy...
Gas and particulate analyzers are a group of devices used to measure and monitor the concentrations and sizes of gas or particulates in a volume. These devices have numerous applications from providing adequate safety to the working personnel in petroleum, chemicals, and power industries, to air quality monitoring and forest fire detection. Despite the ongoing researches in this field, the...
In present and future collider high-energy experiments, the increase of radiation level represents a crucial issue to be carefully monitored for understanding of the beam-induced background, replacement of detector parts and the overall experiment lifetime. In this work we present two different and very flexible radiation monitors. The fist one is based on single crystal CVD diamond sensors,...
In the IRRAD Facility at CERN, radiation hardness tests are performed using a high intensity 24 GeV/c proton beam. Over one year, the total accumulated particle fluence exceeds 1e18 p/cm2, which represents a challenge for the beam monitoring instrumentation. During the 2014-2018 run, PCBs patterned with a matrix of sensing pixels were used as Secondary Electron Emission (SEE) Beam Profile...
Muon tomography consists in using cosmic muons to probe structures in a neither invasive nor destructive way. Following the first muography of a water tower using a muon telescope based on Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detectors and developed at CEA Saclay in 2015, the gaseous detectors and electronics have been developed to be more robust to high variations of temperature, allowing to operate in...
Muography is a novel imaging technology to reveal density structure of hill-sized objects. The cosmic muons predictably lose their energy and penetrate hundreds of meters into the ground, thus their differential local flux
correlates with the crossed density-length.
The Sakurajima Muography Observatory in Kagoshima, Japan, is the largest muography experiment targeting an active volcano....
The Curious Cryogenic Fish (CCF) is a robotic device that may in future operate in large cryostats used for particle physics experiments, such as DUNE. The goal is to perform visual inspections, diagnostic measurements and simple manipulative tasks, integrating the functionalities of a diagnostic station with the flexibility of an unmanned vehicle-manipulator.
Such a device would allow to...
