title: Simulation of proton neutralization effect for neutron dosimetry.
abstract: Neutron dose is transferred to biological materials through the recoil protons produced by elastic scattering. When a low-velocity proton collides with the atoms or molecules of a target, it changes to a hydrogen atom by electron capture; this hydrogen atom then changes to a proton by losing the electron. Because the hydrogen atom has a different ionization cross section from that of a proton, the charge exchange processes need to be considered to calculate stopping power for low energy protons. The proton neutralization effect has been simulated by using a proton track structure code developed by taking into account charge exchange processes. The microdosimetric spectrum for 1 MeV neutrons was calculated by assuming a continuous slowing down approximation (csda) and the results of the proton track code. It was found that hydrogen atoms after proton neutralized by electron capture contribute about 24% to neutron dose.
authors.affiliation: Quantum Energy Applications, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Japan. endos@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Endo
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004563:Electrochemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009502:Neutrons; D011522:Protons; D011853:Radiobiology; D011874:Radiometry
chemical_list: D011522:Protons