USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Noel A Guardala

Veerendra Kumar Mathur

Ross S Fontenot

Jack L Price

William A Hollerman

John F Muth

John H Barkyoumb

Michael Pravica

Ian Patrick Wellenius

Johnathan D Wensman

Exemplary practice of the present invention implements Europium Tetrakis Dibenzoylmethide Triethylammonium (EuDTEA) so as to administer ion beam therapy with extreme precision. An EUDTEA-inclusive marker (e.g., a solid or gel) is exactingly placed on the skin of a patient in accordance with a predetermined location of cancerous tissue beneath the skin. An ion beam aimed at the EUDTEA-inclusive marker results in luminescence of at least a portion of the EUDTEA-inclusive marker, thereby indicating that at least a portion of the ion beam is traveling through the EUDTEA-inclusive marker and striking the cancer therebelow. According to other modes of exemplary inventive practice, a medical phantom contains a tumor replica that is visibly contrastive inside the medical phantom in terms of luminescence versus non-luminescence. The tumor replica is targeted in ion beam testing to discern optimal geometric and radiative conditions for treating a correspondingly situated patient on the same treatment couch.

Luminescence-based method for planning precisely delivered ion beam therapy

Exemplary inventive practice implements Europium Tetrakis Dibenzoylmethide Triethylammonium (EuDTEA) so as to administer ion beam therapy with extreme precision. An EUDTEA-inclusive marker (e.g., a solid or gel) is exactingly placed on the skin of a patient in accordance with a predetermined location of cancerous tissue beneath the skin. An ion beam aimed at the EUDTEA-inclusive marker results in luminescence of at least a portion of the EUDTEA-inclusive marker, thereby indicating that at least a portion of the ion beam is traveling through the EUDTEA-inclusive marker and striking the cancer therebelow. According to other modes of exemplary inventive practice, a medical phantom contains a tumor replica that is visibly contrastive inside the medical phantom in terms of luminescence versus non-luminescence. The tumor replica is targeted in ion beam testing to discern optimal geometric and radiative conditions for treating a correspondingly situated patient on the same treatment couch.

Luminescence-based method for precise delivery of ion beam therapy

An inventive neutron detector includes an n-type GaN wafer and a photomultiplier, which are optically coupled with each other. The n-type GaN wafer is irradiated with neutrons from a neutron source, such as including a particle accelerator and a beryllium target. Scintillation of the n-type GaN resulting from the neutron irradiation is amplified by the photomultiplier and is analyzed using a data acquisition system.

N-type gallium nitride scintillation for fast-neutron detection

Typical practice of the present invention performs measurement and processing of two forms of light emissions&#x2014;viz., unfiltered and filtered&#x2014;of a core-valence luminescent (CVL) scintillator impinged by ionizing radiation emanating from a radioactive source. When unfiltered, the CVL scintillator light emission is inclusive of gamma emissions and neutron emissions. When filtered by a filtering apparatus that transmits CVL light only, the CVL scintillator light emission is inclusive of gamma emissions but is exclusive of neutron emissions. Algorithmic comparison between the two sets of empirical data provides discriminative information regarding gamma emissions versus neutron emissions. Essentially, the difference is taken between the unfiltered pulse height spectra data and the filtered pulse height data. The set of pulse height spectral data thus computed via subtraction is indicative of the portion of the CVL scintillator light emissions that is inclusive of neutron emissions but is exclusive of gamma emissions.

Spectrally resolved pulse height analysis for neutron-gamma discrimination

As typically embodied, the inventive method features bombardment of atomic nuclei withHe ions in order to effect transmutation of atoms from a first atomic element to a second atomic element. Two notable inventive genres describe transmutation of: oxygen to nitrogen in an oxygen-containing target (e.g., including ZnO film); and, carbon to boron in a carbon-containing target (e.g., including SiC film). According to the former, transmutation ofO toN occurs; more specifically, transmutation ofO toO occurs via nuclear bombardment, and then transmutation ofO toN occurs via decay by positron emission. According to the latter, transmutation ofC toB occurs; more specifically, transmutation ofC toC occurs via nuclear bombardment, and then transmutation ofC toB occurs via decay by positron emission. Inventive practice frequently results in significant alteration of at least one physical property among: electronic carrier concentration; resistivity; photoconductivity; luminescence; morphology.

Doping of semiconductor materials by nuclear transmutation

AC diamond is doped by proton induced transmutation. P-type doping is achieved by theC(p,&#x3b1;&#x3b3;)B reaction. N-type doping is achieved by theC(p,&#x3b3;)N reaction. The transmutation reaction that occurs is determined by selection of proton beam energy. Stacks of junctions each calculated to be in the order of 10 nm thick have been achieved.

Growing community of inventors

Columbia, MD, United States of America

Noel A Guardala