Speaker
Description
Irradiation with mixed helium-carbon ion beams is a promising proposal for online monitoring in carbon ion therapy. Over the past two years, newly developed beam manipulation schemes have enabled us to generate and deliver these novel beams to the MedAustron research irradiation room for first research projects in accelerator physics, detector development, and medical physics.
This talk provides a status update on these recent developments. Firstly, we report on improved control of the injection and slow extraction settings to flexibly tailor the inter- and intraspill helium-to-carbon ratio. Building on this, a novel non-invasive method for quantifying the ion composition in the synchrotron based on RF frequency acquisition is introduced. Finally, we report on first experience of using this novel beam for ion imaging experiments, using both clinical detector systems as well as a time-of-flight ion CT. The talk will also include a brief outlook on additional accelerator physics research activities of TU Wien at MedAustron, such as the development of multi-energy extraction.