Quantitative Single-Ion Irradiation by ASIPP Microbeam

A single-ion microbeam facility has been constructed by the microbeam research group in ASIPP (Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science). The system was designed to deliver defined numbers of hydrogen ions produced by a van de Graaff accelerator, covering an energy range from 200 keV to 3 MeV, into living cells (5 μm-20 μm diameter) growing in culture on thin plastic films. The beam is collimated by a 1-μm inner diameter HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) capillary, which forms the micron dimensional beam-line exit. A microbeam collimator, a scintillation ion counting system and a fast beam shutter, which constitute a precise dosage measuring and controlling system, jointly perform quantitative single-ion irradiation. With this facility, we can presently acquire ion-hitting efficiency close to 95%.