Radioactive sputter cathodes for 32P plasma-based ion implantation

The development of clinical treatments involving the use of beta-emitting millimetric and sub-millimetric devices has been a continuing trend in nuclear medicine. Implanted a few nanometers below the surface of endovascular implants, seeds or beads, beta-emitting radioisotopes can be used in a variety of biomedical applications. Recently, new technologies have emerged to enable the rapid and efficient activation of such devices. A pulsed, coaxial electron cyclotron resonance plasma reactor was designed and tested to demonstrate the feasibility of plasma-based radioactive ion implantation (PBRII). It has been shown that such plasma reactors allow for the implantation of radioisotopes (32P) into biomedical devices with higher efficiencies than those obtained with conventional ion beams. Fragments containing radioactive atoms are produced in the implanter by means of a negatively biased solid sputter cathode that is inserted into an argon plasma. Dilute orthophosphoric acid solutions (H3(32)PO4) are used for the fabrication of flat sputter targets, since they offer a high radioisotope content. However, the aggregation of the radioactive solute into highly hygroscopic ring-like deposits rather than flat, thin radioactive films is observed on certain substrates. This article describes the effect of this nonuniform distribution of the radioisotopes on the efficiency of PBRII, and presents a technique which enables a better distribution of 32P by coating the substrates with iron. The iron coating is shown to enable optimal radioisotope sputtering rates, which are essential in 32P-PBRII for the efficient activation of millimetric biomedical devices such as stents or coils.