title: Comparisons of LET distributions for protons with energies between 50 and 200 MeV determined using a spherical tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) and a position-sensitive silicon spectrometer (RRMD-III).
abstract: Experiments have been performed to measure the response of a spherical tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) and a silicon-based LET spectrometer (RRMD-III) to protons with energies ranging from 50-200 MeV. This represents a large portion of the energy distribution for trapped protons encountered by astronauts in low-Earth orbit. The beam energies were obtained using plastic polycarbonate degraders with a monoenergetic beam that was extracted from a proton synchrotron. The LET spectrometer provided excellent agreement with the expected LET distribution emerging from the energy degraders. The TEPC cannot measure the LET distribution directly. However, the frequency mean value of lineal energy, y(-)(f), provided a good approximation to LET. This is in contrast to previous results for high-energy heavy ions where y(-)(f) underestimated LET, whereas the dose-averaged lineal energy, y(-)(D), provided a good approximation to LET.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Radiological Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. thomas.borak@colostate.edu
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Borak
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Doke
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fuse
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guetersloh
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Heilbronn
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moyers
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taddei
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Terasawa
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Zeitlin
mesh_terms: D018499:Linear Energy Transfer; D011522:Protons; D011874:Radiometry; D012825:Silicon
chemical_list: D011522:Protons; D012825:Silicon