Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Present-day high power microwave devices suffer from a lack of reliable, reproducible cathodes for generating the requisite GW-level electron beam in a vacuum. Standard explosive emission cathode pulse durations have been limited to 10's or 100's of ns due to the expansion of cathode-generated plasma and the ensuing impedance collapse that debilitates microwave output. Traditional thermionic cathodes do not suffer from this drawback of plasma generation, but have not yet been able to provide the required emission current densities explosive emission cathodes are capable of. It is expected that if the plasma could be made cooler and less dense, explosive emission would be more stable. Cesium iodide (CsI) has been found to slow the impedance collapse in many explosive emission cathodes. Herein we will experimentally examine diode impedance collapse, gas production, and cathode conditioning in an effort to perform an evaluation of explosive cathode performance in a typical thermionic electron gun environment. These results will then be used to help demarcate the parameter space over which these CsI-coated carbon fiber cathodes are viable candidates for the electron beam source in next-generation high power microwave devices. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

O Laboratório do Acelerador Linear (LAL) do Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo está construindo um acelerador de elétrons do tipo Mícrotron. O acelerador possui dois estágios de aceleração: o Mícrotron booster e o Mícrotron Principal. Atualmente, o sistema injetor do acelerador, que é um acelerador linear, dispõe de um feixe de elétrons de 1,9 MeV. Este feixe será inserido no primeiro estágio de aceleração, o Mícrotron booster, que já está construído e será testado em breve. Sua função é elevar a energia do feixe para 5 MeV. O objetivo deste trabalho é o de otimizar os parâmetros de operação do Mícrotron booster por meio de simulação. Também tivemos como objetivo estudar a viabilidade da adaptação do projeto original, com feixe de entrada de 1,765 MeV, para um feixe de entrada de 1,9 MeV. Tendo como foco principal encontrar a admitância do acelerador, foram desenvolvidas algumas rotinas de simulação. A admitância do Mícrotron booster para um feixe de 1,765 MeV foi calculada em 3,08 pi mm.mrad, 0,58 pi mm.mrad e 0,38 pi keV.rad para os espaços de fase horizontal, vertical e longitudinal, respectivamente. Para o feixe de 1,9 MeV, uma condição de aceleração foi encontrada e os valores de admitância foram 3,65 pi mm.mrad, 0,62 pi mm.mrad e 0,77 pi keV.rad para os mesmos espaços de fase. Dados de caracterizações do feixe, realizados em trabalhos anteriores foram utilizados para determinar a configuração das lentes quadrupolares responsáveis pela inserção do feixe no acelerador. Tais simulações darão suporte ao início de operação do Mícrotron booster, auxiliando na determinação dos parâmetros iniciais de operação e otimização dos parâmetros finais. / The Laboratório do Acelerador Linear is building a racetrack microtron electron accelerator. It has two acceleration stages: the booster and the main microtron. The injection system has already been commissioned and is delivering a 1.9-MeV continuous wave beam. This beam will be injected in the booster stage, which is ready to be commissioned, and should increase the energy to 5 MeV. The aim of this work is to optimize the operation parameters of the booster stage by means of simulation tools. We also studied the feasibility of injecting the 1.9 MeV beam in the booster, which has been designed to operate with a 1.765 MeV beam. Some simulation routines had to be developed in order to determine the admittance of the booster stage. For the 1.765 MeV beam the admittances were determined to be 3.08 pi mm.mrad, 0.58 pi mm.mrad, and 0.38 pi keV.rad for the transverse horizontal, transverse vertical, and longitudinal phase spaces, respectively. For the 1.9 MeV injection beam we were able to find a viable acceleration condition, with slightly better admittances: 3.65 pi mm.mrad, 0.62 pi mm.mrad, and 0.77 pi keV.rad, for the same phase spaces cited above. The injection beam has been characterized previously, and the available data were used, in the simulation codes, to match the transverse beam emittances of the injector to the transverse beam admittances of the booster. The phase space manipulations were accomplished by tuning a quadrupole triplet placed before the booster entrance. These simulations are intended as a supporting tool for the commissioning of the booster stage, helping the experimental determination of the working parameters and their optimization.

The purpose of this thesis is to validate the Monte Carlo algorithm for electron radiotherapy in the Eclipse™ treatment planning system (TPS), and to compare the accuracy of the Electron Monte Carlo algorithm (eMC) to the Pencil Beam algorithm (PB) in Eclipse™. Dose distributions from GafChromic™ EBT3 film measurements were compared to dose distributions from eMC and PB treatment plans. Measurements were obtained with 6MeV, 9MeV, and 12MeV electron beams at various depths. A 1 cm thick solid water template with holes for bone-like and lung-like plugs was used to create assorted configurations and heterogeneities. Dose distributions from eMC plans agreed better with the film measurements based on gamma analysis. Gamma values for eMC were between 83%-99%, whereas gamma values for PB treatment plans were as low as 38.66%. Our results show that using the eMC algorithm will improve dose accuracy in regions with heterogeneities and should be considered over PB. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

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La planification de traitement en radiothérapie nécessite un calcul précis de la dose délivrée au patient. La méthode la plus fiable pour y parvenir est la simulation du transport des particules par technique Monte Carlo. Cette thèse constitue la première étude concernant la validation de la plateforme de simulation Monte Carlo GATE (GEANT4 Application for Tomographic Emission), basée sur les librairies de GEANT4 (GEometry ANd Tracking), pour le calcul de la dose absorbée déposée par des faisceaux d’électrons. L’objectif de cette thèse est de montrer que GATE/GEANT4 est capable d’atteindre le niveau d’exigences requis pour le calcul de la dose absorbée lors d’une planification de traitement, dans des situations où les algorithmes analytiques, actuellement utilisés dans les services de radiothérapie, n’atteignent pas un niveau de précision satisfaisant. L’enjeu est de prouver que GATE/GEANT4 est adapté pour la planification de traitement utilisant des électrons et capable de rivaliser avec d’autres codes Monte Carlo reconnus. Cet enjeu a été démontré par la simulation avec GATE/GEANT4 de faisceaux et des sources d’électrons réalistes utilisées en radiothérapie externe ou en radiothérapie moléculaire et la production de distributions de dose absorbée en accord avec les mesures expérimentales et avec d’autres codes Monte Carlo de référence pour la physique médicale. Par ailleurs, des recommandations quant à l’utilisation des paramètres de simulation à fixer, assurant un calcul de la distribution de dose absorbée satisfaisant les spécifications en radiothérapie, sont proposées. / Radiation therapy treatment planning requires accurate determination of absorbed dose in the patient. Monte Carlo simulation is the most accurate method for solving the transport problem of particles in matter. This thesis is the first study dealing with the validation of the Monte Carlo simulation plateform GATE (GEANT4 Application for Tomographic Emission), based on GEANT4 (GEometry And Tracking) libraries, for the computation of absorbed dose deposited by electron beams. This thesis aims at demonstrating that GATE/GEANT4 calculations are able to reach treatment planning requirements in situations where analatycal algorithms are not satisfactory. The goal is to prove that GATE/GEANT4 is useful for treatment planning using electrons and competes with well validated Monte Carlo codes. This is demonstrated by the simulations with GATE/GEANT4 of realistic electron beams and electron sources used for external radiation therapy or targeted radiation therapy. The computed absorbed dose distributions are in agreement with experimental measurements and/or calculations from other Monte Carlo codes. Furthermore, guidelines are proposed to fix the physics parameters of the GATE/GEANT4 simulations in order to ensure the accuracy of absorbed dose calculations according to radiation therapy requirements.

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