X-ray production in different anode geometries: Theoretical and Monte Carlo simulation approaches

F. GESER; M. VALENTE; F. MALANO; R. FIGUEROA; M. SANTIBÁÑEZ

Santo Domingo

Simposio; ISSSD 2017 - International Symposium of Solid State Dosimetry; 2017

Univ. Aut. Sto Domingo & Univ. Aut. Méx

Xrays are commonly used for a wide variety of purposes, from material characterization to medical applications. The traditional scheme for X-ray production is based on the well known X-ray tube, an evolution in technology started from the experiments performed by Crookes and finally by X-rays discovery by W. Röntgen in 1895. As known, X-ray tubes are mainly based on the impact of accelerated electron onto high atomic number anodes in order to produce photons by means of Bremsstrahlung and characteristic X-rays. However, spectral and angular distributions of produced photons may not be strictly improved, or even worst, not adequate for specific applications. Actually, one of the main properties of traditional X-ray tubes regards its geometrical divergence, which necessary produces fluence reduction along beam trajectory. This inherent characteristic represents a strong limitation when high concentrated fluence is required, as happens in convergent techniques [1]. This work presents investigations about the effects of the different anode properties in combination with electron beam incidence in order to assess convenient X-ray tube designs to produce X-rays with different purposes, mainly focused on applications requiring photon fluence concentration. Dedicated Monte Carlo subroutines (PENELOPE [2] and FLUKA [3]) were developed aimed at describing interaction processes and X-ray production according to different combination of electron beam incidence and anode physical/geometrical properties. The obtained results confirm that suitable designs are capable of improving photon fluence at certain regions according to specific requirements.