Relative and absolute dosimetric commissioning of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED laser-driven proton beamline at 23.4 MeV
Abstract
The development of laser-driven proton beamlines for biomedical and radiobiological applications requires traceable dosimetry and reliable online monitoring at the irradiation point. In this work, we report the relative and absolute dosimetric commissioning of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED laser-driven proton beamline at ELI Beamlines using an energy-selected proton beam with an average energy of about 24~MeV. Radiochromic-film measurements were used to characterize the transverse dose distribution, the depth--dose profile, and the proton energy spectrum at the irradiation point. The reconstructed spectrum was centred at 23.45 MeV with a FWHM of 2.60 MeV, while the transverse dose distribution showed an approximately 5.5 mm field size with a millimetre-scale homogeneous region. The Faraday Cup was used as the absolute reference detector for dose to water determination and for cross-calibrating the Dual-Gap Ionization Chamber, which was operated as the primary online dose monitor. The Integrating Current Transformer and Secondary Electron Monitor were evaluated as upstream relative beam monitors. An independent RCF--FC dose comparison performed over fifty consecutive shots yielded 30.45 ± 3.5 cGy from the FC and 36.46 ± 1.8 cGy from the EBT3 film. Dedicated G4ELIMED Monte Carlo simulations showed that the RCF positioned upstream of the FC perturbs the FC measurement through proton losses outside the FC acceptance and through an increase in the effective beam area at the FC entrance. Applying the resulting correction factor, CMC=1.109, reduced the residual difference between the FC- and RCF-derived doses to about 7%. These results establish the dosimetric chain of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED beamline under the present low-fluence commissioning conditions and identify the operational limits of the online monitoring system.
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BibTeX
@misc{cirrone2026relative,
title = {{Relative and absolute dosimetric commissioning of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED laser-driven proton beamline at 23.4 MeV}},
author = {G. A. P. Cirrone and G. Petringa and A. Kurmanova and R. Catalano and A. Amato and A. Pappalardo and M. G. Guarrera and F. Schillaci and P. Blaha and F. Grepl and M. Tryus and A. Velyhan and L. Giuffrida and D. Margarone and G. Cuttone},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.15272},
eprint = {2608.15272},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15272},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Relative and absolute dosimetric commissioning of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED laser-driven proton beamline at 23.4 MeV
AU - G. A. P. Cirrone
AU - G. Petringa
AU - A. Kurmanova
AU - R. Catalano
AU - A. Amato
AU - A. Pappalardo
AU - M. G. Guarrera
AU - F. Schillaci
AU - P. Blaha
AU - F. Grepl
AU - M. Tryus
AU - A. Velyhan
AU - L. Giuffrida
AU - D. Margarone
AU - G. Cuttone
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.15272
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15272
AB - The development of laser-driven proton beamlines for biomedical and radiobiological applications requires traceable dosimetry and reliable online monitoring at the irradiation point. In this work, we report the relative and absolute dosimetric commissioning of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED laser-driven proton beamline at ELI Beamlines using an energy-selected proton beam with an average energy of about 24~MeV. Radiochromic-film measurements were used to characterize the transverse dose distribution, the depth--dose profile, and the proton energy spectrum at the irradiation point. The reconstructed spectrum was centred at 23.45 MeV with a FWHM of 2.60 MeV, while the transverse dose distribution showed an approximately 5.5 mm field size with a millimetre-scale homogeneous region. The Faraday Cup was used as the absolute reference detector for dose to water determination and for cross-calibrating the Dual-Gap Ionization Chamber, which was operated as the primary online dose monitor. The Integrating Current Transformer and Secondary Electron Monitor were evaluated as upstream relative beam monitors. An independent RCF--FC dose comparison performed over fifty consecutive shots yielded 30.45 ± 3.5 cGy from the FC and 36.46 ± 1.8 cGy from the EBT3 film. Dedicated G4ELIMED Monte Carlo simulations showed that the RCF positioned upstream of the FC perturbs the FC measurement through proton losses outside the FC acceptance and through an increase in the effective beam area at the FC entrance. Applying the resulting correction factor, C_MC=1.109, reduced the residual difference between the FC- and RCF-derived doses to about 7%. These results establish the dosimetric chain of the ELIMAIA--ELIMED beamline under the present low-fluence commissioning conditions and identify the operational limits of the online monitoring system.
ER -