Particle Accelerator Applications: Ion and Electron Irradiation in Materials Science, Biology and Medicine

Abstract

Although the developments of particle accelerators are devoted to basic study of matter constituents, since the beginning these machines have been applied with different purposes in many areas also. Today particle accelerators are essential instruments for science and technology. This work presents an overview of the main application for direct particle irradiation with accelerator in material science, biology and medicine. They are used for material synthesis by ion implantation and charged particle irradiation; to make coatings and micromachining; to characterize broad kind of samples by ion beam analysis techniques; as mass spectrometers for atomic isotopes determination. In biomedicine the accelerators are applied for the study of effects by charged particles on cells. In medicine the radiotherapy by electron irradiation is widely used, while hadrontherapy is still under development. Also, they are necessary for short life radioisotopes production required in radiodiagnostic.