Multiple Coulomb scattering of high-energy heavy charged particle beams used in biology and medicine

The authors measured lateral displacement and angular distributions of high-energy heavy charged particles emerging from a target at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory BEVALAC with beams used in radiobiology experiments. Multiple Coulomb scattering occurring in the target material generally spreads the beam laterally and increases its divergence. The apparatus consists of four sets of position-sensitive semiconductor detectors located along the beam line. Each providing two position signals and one energy signal. The difference between the two position signals is used to determine the particle position in one dimension. The two position signals are constrained to add up to the energy deposition signal in order to reject multiple-particle traversals. The vector directions for the incident and emerging particles are reconstructed in three dimensions from their measured coordinated positions. Lateral and angular distributions are reported for beams of high-energy neon, iron and uranium ions incident on targets of aluminum, cooper, lead and water