Lithium inelastic cross-sections and their impact on micro and nano dosimetry of boron neutron capture

Abstract

Objective. To present a new set of lithium-ion cross-sections for (i) ionization and excitation processes down to 700 eV, and (ii) charge-exchange processes down to 1 keV u−1. To evaluate the impact of the use of these cross-sections on micro a nano dosimetric quantities in the context of boron neutron capture (BNC) applications/techniques. Approach. The Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo method was used to calculate Li ion charge-exchange cross sections in the energy range of 1 keV u−1 to 10 MeV u−1. Partial Li ion charge states ionization and excitation cross-sections were calculated using a detailed charge screening factor. The cross-sections were implemented in Geant4-DNA v10.07 and simulations and verified using TOPAS-nBio by calculating stopping power and continuous slowing down approximation (CSDA) range against data from ICRU and SRIM. Further microdosimetric and nanodosimetric calculations were performed to quantify differences against other simulation approaches for low energy Li ions. These calculations were: lineal energy spectra (yf(y) and yd(y)), frequency mean lineal energy yF― , dose mean lineal energy yD― and ionization cluster size distribution analysis. Microdosimetric calculations were compared against a previous MC study that neglected charge-exchange and excitation processes. Nanodosimetric results were compared against pure ionization scaled cross-sections calculations. Main results. Calculated stopping power differences between ICRU and Geant4-DNA decreased from 33.78% to 6.9%. The CSDA range difference decreased from 621% to 34% when compared against SRIM calculations. Geant4-DNA/TOPAS calculated dose mean lineal energy differed by 128% from the previous Monte Carlo. Ionization cluster size frequency distributions for Li ions differed by 76%–344.11% for 21 keV and 2 MeV respectively. With a decrease in the N 1 within 9% at 10 keV and agreeing after the 100 keV. With the new set of cross-sections being able to better simulate low energy behaviors of Li ions. Significance. This work shows an increase in detail gained from the use of a more complete set of low energy cross-sections which include charge exchange processes. Significant differences to previous simulation results were found at the microdosimetric and nanodosimetric scales that suggest that Li ions cause less ionizations per path length traveled but with more energy deposits. Microdosimetry results suggest that the BNC’s contribution to cellular death may be mainly due to alpha particle production when boron-based drugs are distributed in the cellular membrane and beyond and by Li when it is at the cell cytoplasm regions.