Classical approaches to microdosimetry, with example of use in radiation protection, medicine and mechanistic understanding

Microdosimetry is the study and application of the microscopic features and stochastics of ionising radiations that cannot be described by the average macroscopic quantity absorbed dose. Microdosimetry is intimately related to radiation quality, but it also encompasses the inhomogeneities of interactions and energy depositions within a single radiation type. A variety of past and current approaches will be summarised and some examples given of implications to radiation protection and medicine, as well as to basic mechanistic studies of radiation effects. (author)