α-ray measurement due to air luminescence employing a liquid scintillation spectrometer

Seeing the invisible: Direct visualization of therapeutic radiation beams using air scintillation

“…4,5 In modern times, air scintillation (sometimes also called air fluorescence or air luminescence) has been utilized to study cosmic showers entering the earth atmosphere [6][7][8] and as a means to count alpha emitters. [9][10][11] The application of air scintillation for dosimetry of electron beams from a van de Graaff accelerator (0.5-1.5 MeV) has also been reported 12 and kilovoltage electron beams have been photographed using this phenomenon. 13 However, to the best of our knowledge, air scintillation has never been considered in the context of the clinical use of modern medical linear accelerators.…”

“…21 Cherenkov radiation has a broad emission spectrum that spans the entire ultraviolet and visible spectrum. In air, given the low index of refraction, electrons must have energy greater than 20.3 MeV to produce Cherenkov radiation, which is beyond the range of most medical linear accelerators (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Several studies have however utilized Cherenkov radiation generated in water and tissue for dosimetry [22][23][24][25] and molecular imaging.…”

Imaging penetrating radiation through ion photon emission microscopy

“…), steps were taken to mitigate this concern. It was found in the literature and validated through experiments that air luminescence from an external ion source exhibits several distinct spectral peaks, none of which are above 500 nm (10,11). In order to mitigate this effect, a 500 nm band pass filter was introduced into the optical system and the photocathode of the single photon sensitive detector (PSD) was changed from a Bialkali with sensitivity from 250-550 nm to an S25, which is sensitive from 500-850 nm.…”