Nanodosimetry of (125)I Auger electrons

The nanodosimetric description of the radiation action of Auger electrons on nitrogen targets of nanometric size is presented.

Experimental microdosimetry at nanometer scale for Auger electrons has been accomplished with the set-up called Jet Counter. This consists of a pulse-operated valve which injects an expanding nitrogen jet into an interaction chamber where a gaseous sensitive volume of cylindrical shape is created. The ionization cluster size distributions (ICSD) created by Auger electrons emitted by (125)I while crossing a nanometer-sized volume have been measured.

The ICSD for the sensitive volumes corresponding to 3 and 12 nm in diameter (in unit density 1 g/cm(3)) irradiated by electrons emitted by a (125)I source were collected and compared with the corresponding Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The preliminary results of the experiments with Auger electrons of (125)I interacting with a nitrogen jet having nanometric size comparable to a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and nucleosome, showing the discrete spectrum of ICSD with extended cluster size, are described.

The presented paper describes for the first time the nanodosimetric experiments with Auger electrons emitted by (125)I. A set of the new descriptors of the radiation quality describing the radiation effect at nanometer level is proposed. The ICSD were determined for the first time for an Auger emitter of (125)I.