Distributions of deposited energy and ionization clusters around ion tracks studied with Geant4 toolkit. (19th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Burigo, Lucas; Pshenichnov, Igor; Mishustin, Igor; Hilgers, Gerhard; Bleicher, Marcus
• Is Part Of: Physics in medicine & biology. Volume 61:Number 10(2016:May)
• Page Start: 3698
• Page End: 3711
• Publication Date: 2016-04-19
• Subjects: nanodosimetry -- track structure -- Monte Carlo simulation -- Geant4; Biophysics -- Periodicals; Medical physics -- Periodicals; 610.153
• DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/61/10/3698
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0031-9155

Abstract

Abstract: The Geant4-based Monte Carlo model for Heavy-Ion Therapy (MCHIT) was extended to study the patterns of energy deposition at sub-micrometer distance from individual ion tracks. Dose distributions for low-energy 1 H, 4 He, 12 C and 16 O ions measured in several experiments are well described by the model in a broad range of radial distances, from 0.5 to 3000 nm. Despite the fact that such distributions are characterized by long tails, a dominant fraction of deposited energy (∼80%) is confined within a radius of about 10 nm. The probability distributions of clustered ionization events in nanoscale volumes of water traversed by 1 H, 2 H, 4 He, 6 Li, 7 Li, and 12 C ions are also calculated. A good agreement of calculated ionization cluster-size distributions with the corresponding experimental data suggests that the extended MCHIT can be used to characterize stochastic processes of energy deposition to sensitive cellular structures.