A readout system for highly sensitive diamond detectors for FLASH dosimetry

Sara Pettinato; Giuseppe Felici; Lorenzo Galluzzo; Maria Cristina Rossi; Marco Girolami; Stefano Salvatori

doi:10.1016/j.phro.2024.100538

A readout system for highly sensitive diamond detectors for FLASH dosimetry

Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2024 Jan 19:29:100538. doi: 10.1016/j.phro.2024.100538. eCollection 2024 Jan.

Authors

Sara Pettinato¹, Giuseppe Felici², Lorenzo Galluzzo², Maria Cristina Rossi³, Marco Girolami⁴, Stefano Salvatori¹

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Engineering, Niccolò Cusano University, via don Carlo Gnocchi 3, 00166 Rome, Italy.
² SIT - Sordina IORT Technologies S.p.A., Aprilia, Latina, Italy.
³ Dept. of Industrial, Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering, Roma Tre University, Via Vito Volterra 62, 00146 Rome, Italy.
⁴ Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISM-CNR), Sede Secondaria di Montelibretti, Strada Provinciale 35/D n. 9, 00010 Montelibretti, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Accurate dosimetry of ultra-high dose-rate beams using diamond detectors remains challenging, primarily due to the elevated photocurrent peaks exceeding the input dynamics of precision electrometers. This work aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of compact gated-integration electronics in conditioning the current peaks (>20 mA) generated by a highly sensitive (S ≃ 26 nC/Gy) custom-made diamond photoconductor under electron FLASH irradiation, as well as in real-time monitoring of beam dose and dose-rate. For the emerging FLASH technology, this study provided a new perspective on using commercially available diamond dosimeters with high sensitivity, currently employed in conventional radiotherapy.

Keywords: Beam monitoring; Diamond detectors; Electron FLASH; Front-end/readout electronics; Synchronous detection; Ultra-high dose-per-pulse.