Development of silicon sensors for dosimetry and microdosimetry

Abstract

The contents of this dissertation are the results from research in the field of microdosimetry and silicon detectors for hadrontherapy done at the Molecular Imaging and Medical Physics group of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) from 2014 to 2019. Cancer is a broad term that defines a very large number of different diseases that are characterized by certain common traits. The most common way of treating cancer is using radiation to kill the tumoral cells. In 1946, Robert Wilson proposed the use of heavier charged particles for therapy, giving birth to the field of Particle Therapy. In order to provide the correct amount of radiation it is necessary to assess the properties of the beam and characterise the beam quality (i.e. particle type and energy spectra) by means of dosimetric and microdosimetric measurements. This thesis describes the different silicon devices employed for measuring the radiation quality of particle beams, with an electrical characterisation of the different silicon detectors, the comparison of the data obtained with theoretical results by means of Monte Carlo simulations, and a study on the limitations of these particular detection systems.