Optimal Beam Quality Research Articles

High accuracy laser diffractometer: angle-scale traceability by the error separation method with a grating

Laser diffractometer constructed at MIKES for calibration of pitches of 1D and 2D gratings is based on the Littrow configuration. The grating is rotated by a rotary table. In order to obtain optimal beam quality a fibre-coupled frequency-doubled stabilized Nd:YAG laser is used as a light source and a CCD without internal reflections is used to detect the diffracted beam position. The angle corresponding to the Littrow null position is calculated using a linear fit to equidistantly spaced angles around the null position, which reduces the effect of nonlinearity of the angle encoder scale. Pitch is calculated as a weighted average of the diffraction orders. Novel use of an uncalibrated 1D grating applied to classical error separation methods for angle calibration by full-circle subdivision is described. Diffraction angle measurements are repeated in many sample holder alignments rotated relative to the absolute angle scale. The sequences overlap so that the full circle of the angle scale is covered with multiple evenly distributed sequences, needed for circle-subdivision metrology. The average grating pitch over all sequences is used to separate angle scale errors and a correction table for the rotary table is calculated. The method was verified using a calibrated polygon and an autocollimator. Uncertainty estimates for the grating pitch calibration are given, e.g. the standard uncertainty of 9 pm for 2 µm grating.

Patient doses and image quality in chest radiography: The influence of different beam qualities

A simple method of assessing optimal X-ray beam quality in respect to patient exposure and image quality in chest screen-film radiography is presented here. Different beam qualities were generated by the use of various combinations of tube voltages (70 kV to 110 kV) and Al and Cu filter thick nesses. Patient doses were assessed by kerma-area product measurements. Simultaneously, image quality was evaluated by a twofold method: a clinical study applying European quality criteria for the radiographic technique of image on image of 126 patients and a multifunctional home-made dosimetric phantom with embedded test objects. The quantification of image quality criteria yields a simpler method of optimizing image quality and patient dose relationships. Modifications of radiographic practice, based on image quality assessment and dose measurements, resulted in significant dose reductions and preservation of image quality. Through the use of harder beam quality, dose reduction of up to a value of factor 3 were observed, compared to the doses from previously used radiographic techniques, implying that sufficient image quality does not necessarily imply higher doses. As a result of the optimization process, an optimal radiographic technique was suggested.

Optimal beam quality selection in digital mammography

An experimental method of determining the optimal beam quality for digital mammography systems was applied to two systems (Fuji Profect and GE Senographe 2000D). The mean glandular dose (MGD) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were measured using Perspex breast phantoms simulating breasts from 20 mm to 90 mm thick. For each thickness, four combinations of tube voltage and target/filter were tested. Optimal beam quality was defined as giving a target CNR for the lowest MGD and was similar for the two systems. For breasts with a thickness of 21 mm or 32 mm, a tube voltage of either 25 kV or 28 kV and a Mo/Mo target/filter combination was optimal. For breast thicknesses of 45 mm and greater, the combination that had the highest X-ray energy (34 kV Rh/Rh) was optimal. Optimization using the higher energy beam quality required greater detector dose to compensate for the lower contrast. Thus for a 75 mm thick breast the 34 kV Rh/Rh combination required about a 90% greater detector dose than 28 kV Mo/Mo to achieve the same CNR because of the 25% reduction in contrast. Nonetheless, the MGD was reduced by 32% by choosing the higher energy spectra and achieving the same CNR. Current automatic exposure control (AEC) designs that aim for a fixed detector dose are not optimal and greater use of higher energy spectra should be accompanied by higher detector doses at all breast thicknesses which are average or above. This may result in slightly higher doses, but better image quality for these breasts.

Investigation of beam quality for digital chest radiography with RbBr:Tl(+) photostimulable storage phosphors

Beam quality for digital chest radiography in digital radiography systems (DR systems) with RbBr:Tl(+) photostimulable storage phosphors was investigated. Measurements of overall Wiener spectrum (overall WS) and observer performance experiments by means of Scheffé's method of paired comparisons were performed under the same exposure (5.16x10(-7)C/kg) at the X-ray detector of DR systems (sampling distance: 175 micro m, 2,048x2,048 pixels, 12 bits, look-up table: THX2) with a phantom lung and metacryl plates. Overall WS values were indicated to be inferior at higher tube voltages. All of the overall WS values were greater than those of screen film systems (HGM/UR1:S/F) at radiographic density 0.50, which was considered the density of the mediastinum and the area below the diaphragm (low density area), and at radiographic densities 1.00 and 1.50, considered as lung, WS values of S/F were located between the overall WS values of 80 kV and 100 kV, and 120 kV and 140 kV, respectively. Evaluation of visibility including mediastinum, lung, and total were indicated to be superior at the lower tube voltages. In evaluation of the mediastinum, the base image, which was obtained by 100 kV tube voltage (effective energy: 46.0 kV) in this study, was not significant from 90 kV to 110 kV tube voltages (range, +/-10 kV), and in-lung and total evaluations were not significant from 90 kV to 120 kV (range, -10 kV to +20 kV), and from 80 kV to 120 kV (range, +/-20 kV) tube voltages by 99% confidence interval. In conclusion, optimal beam quality for digital chest radiography with RbBr:Tl(+) photostimulable storage phosphors was considered to be less than 110 kV tube voltage (effective energy, 47.9 keV) in 0.1 mm copper and 3.8 mm aluminum total filtration. In this case, the granularity in low-density areas were inferior to those of S/F systems but nearly equal to the middle and high-density areas of chest images, and exposure dose was 14.3% lower than that of the base image obtained by 100 kV (effective energy, 46.0 keV) tube voltage in this study.

Efficient, high photostability, high brightness, co-polymer solid state dye lasers

We report an investigation of the laser beam quality, efficiency and photostability of rhodamine 590 solid state dye lasers with hosts based upon 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate and methylmethacrylate P(HEMA:MMA) co-polymers and modified methylmethacrylate (MPMMA) polymers with ethanol and dimethylsulphoxide additives. Highest efficiencies were obtained with MPMMA, with slope efficiencies of up to 44% (corresponding to 61% optical-optical conversion) measured for ethanolic MPMMA. P(HEMA:MMA) hosts gave superior photostability, with the highest normalized photostability of 240 GJ mol−1 obtained for a P(HEMA:MMA) 1:1 rod. A simple resonator has been used to compensate the effects of thermal lensing and pump mode-mismatch, resulting in optimized beam quality for MPMMA lasers.

The matrizant method for an optimal synthesis of electrostatic multiple cylinder lenses

The matrizant method for the synthesis of electrostatic systems with axial symmetry, consisting of multiple cylinder lenses and producing an optimal beam quality, is presented. This method includes: the matrix method for the description of motion of a charged particle beam in the nonlinear approximation; the mathematical analytical model of the axial potential distribution; the method of the moments of the particle distribution function over the whole totality of the phase coordinates for finding the averaged radius of the beam; and the integral equation method to solve Laplace's equation for obtaining the parameters of the physical model which has the same axial potential distribution as the mathematical model. The developed matrizant method is applied to minimize the beam spot size for a given beam current in a focusing system consisting of multi-cylinder lenses with equal diameter. The desired object and image plane positions are satisfied before evaluating the merit function, but are not a part of the set of constraints for the optimization.

Spectral-spatial measurements of fundamental and third-harmonic light of intense 25-fs laser pulses focused in a gas cell

We present spatially and spectrally resolved measurements of light emerging from the focus of an intense 25-fs laser pulse in gaseous media. The pulses are focused inside a chamber backfilled with either argon or air to nominal vacuum intensities of up to 5×1015 W/cm2, far in excess of that necessary for ionization. We have recorded spectral-spatial maps for various pressures and pulse energies and have compared the results of argon and air. This survey is done in the regime where ∼0.1% of the laser light is converted into the third harmonic, which is of practical importance since it is the largest conversion efficiency measured to date while maintaining such a short pulse duration. These measurements are, to our knowledge, the first of their type and are performed with a laser beam of very high spatial quality. The dynamics of an intense laser focusing into a gas cell is complicated, and these measurements provide a way to compare numerical simulations with an array of experimental information. The experiments also determine the conditions for optimal third-harmonic spatial beam quality in this regime.

39. CR膝関節撮影に用いる適正な線質の検討

39. CR膝関節撮影に用いる適正な線質の検討

Dosimetric considerations on multiple arc stereotaxic radiotherapy

The aim of this paper is to present the physical and dosimetrical features of the stereotaxic radiosurgical method already published by the authors. This method concentrates the dose into the stereotaxic target volume, placed at the isocenter of a 4 MV X-ray beam. Computer calculations showed that: 9–17 arcs provide almost spherical dose distributions; the optimal photon beam quality is about 4–6 MV. The angle between adjacent rotation planes is 20–40 ° and the arcs are 100–160 ° wide. In this way the dose to healthy tissue is minimized. The dose distribution was experimentally verified both by ionometric and photodensitometric methods. The procedure for dose calculation at isocenter of fields as small as required by the radiotherapist, has been investigated.