Measurement of omega, the energy required to create an ion pair, for 150-MeV protons in nitrogen and argon

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a 1% measurement of omega, the energy required to produce an ion pair, for 150 MeV protons in various gases. Such a measurement should improve the accuracy of proton ionization chamber dosimetry at the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory. Currently, no measurements of omega exist in the energy range of 30 to 150 MeV, and present ionization chamber dosimetry at the Cyclotron relies on average values of measurements at lower and higher energies (i.e. for E < 3 MeV and E = 340 MeV). Contrary to theoretical expectations, these low and high energy data differ by as much as 9% in some gases. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the existing high energy data is probably in error, and current proton ionization chamber dosimetry underestimates omega, and hence the proton dose, by 5%