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Establishment of the Physical and Technical Prerequisites for the Determination of the Relative Biological Effectiveness of Low-energy Monochromatic X-rays

Lehnert, A.

A superconducting electron linear accelerator of high brilliance and low emittance (ELBE) is under operation at Forschungszentrum Rossendorf since January 2003. The first stage of ELBE is based on an electron energy of 20 MeV, whereas in the future a 40 MeV beam will be provided. The relativistic electron beam is used to drive various kinds of secondary radiation sources. Among all, X-rays in a wide energy range can be obtained. One method for production of intensive, quasi-monochromatic Xrays in the energy range 10 - 100 keV, tunable in photon energy, is by channeling of relativistic electrons in a perfect crystal. This unconventional photon source with variable time structure will be optimised and used for radiobiological studies. Its first test operation was in October 2003. This thesis is part of the first radiobiological project – the determination of relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of the X-rays in this energy range.
The most important aspects of medical application of low-energy X-rays are imaging and radiation therapy, but they can also be helpful in the study of radiation effects in living matter. However, the RBE depends on the photon energy, dose range, cell line and biological endpoint. Up to now no definitive conclusions can be made about their biological effectiveness due to the large spread of the published data. Therefore, in order to precisely determine the RBE, studies have to be performed at an intensive, tunable photon source, for several practically relevant cell lines and biological endpoints. The possibility of using channeling radiation (CR) for medical applications has been widely discussed in the literature, but building and optimisation of a dedicated source is for the first time performed at the ELBE accelerator.

  • Open Access Logo Wissenschaftlich-Technische Berichte / Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf; FZR-441 2005
    ISSN: 1437-322X

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Publ.-Id: 8325