Research on a Monte Carlo global variance reduction method based on an automatic importance sampling method

Global variance reduction is a bottleneck in Monte Carlo shielding calculations.The global variance reduction problem requires that the statistical error of the entire space is uniform.This study proposed a grid-AIS method for the global variance reduction problem based on the AIS method,which was implemented in the Monte Carlo program MCShield.The proposed method was validated using the VENUS-Ⅲ international benchmark problem and a self-shielding calculation example.The results from the VENUS-Ⅲ benchmark problem showed that the grid-AIS method achieved a significant reduction in the variance of the statistical errors of the MESH grids,decreasing from 1.08×10^(-2) to 3.84×10^(-3),representing a 64.00% reduction.This demonstrates that the grid-AIS method is effective in addressing global issues.The results of the selfshielding calculation demonstrate that the grid-AIS method produced accurate computational results.Moreover,the grid-AIS method exhibited a computational efficiency approximately one order of magnitude higher than that of the AIS method and approximately two orders of magnitude higher than that of the conventional Monte Carlo method.

Normalized glandular dose coefficients for digital breast tomosynthesis using detailed Chinese breast models

The rise in breast cancer diagnoses among Chinese women has necessitated the use of X-ray breast screening,which carries a radiation risk.This study aimed to provide a dosimetry protocol for the Chinese female population to replace the traditional standard that utilizes simplified breast models,for the accurate estimation of the mean glandular dose of a patient undergoing digital breast tomosynthesis(DBT).The first set of detailed Chinese female breast models and representative breast parameters was constructed.Considering backscatter radiation and computational efficiency,we improved the combination of these models and the Chinese reference adult female whole-body voxel phantom.Image acquisition for four commercial DBT systems that are widely employed in China was simulated using the Monte Carlo method to obtain the normalized glandular dose coefficients of DBT(D_(gN)^(DBT))and the glandular depth dose(D_(g)^(dep)(z))for different breast characteristics and X-ray spectra.We calculated a series of D_(gN)^(DBT) values for breasts with different percentage mass glandularities(5%,25%,50%,75%,and 100%)and compressed breast thicknesses(2,3,4,5,6,and 7 cm)at various tube potentials(25,28,30,32,35,and 49 kV)and target/filter combinations(W/Rh,W/Al,Mo/Mo,Rh/Rh,and Rh/Ag).The parameter dependence of the breast characteristics and beam conditions on D_(gN)^(DBT) in detailed breast models was investigated.The D_(gN)^(DBT) results were 14.6-51.0%lower than those of the traditional dosimetry standard in China.The difference in D_(gN)^(DBT) was mainly due to a decrease in the depth of the main energy deposition area caused by the glandular distribution along the depth direction.The results obtained in this study may be used to improve breast dosimetry in China and provide more detailed information on risk assessment during DBT.

Analyzing the surface passivity effect of germanium oxynitride:a comprehensive approach through first principles simulation and interface state density

High-purity germanium(HPGe)detectors,which are used for direct dark matter detection,have the advantages of a low threshold and excellent energy resolution.The surface passivation of HPGe has become crucial for achieving an extremely low energy threshold.In this study,first-principles simulations,passivation film preparation,and metal oxide semiconductor(MOS)capacitor characterization were combined to study surface passivation.Theoretical calculations of the energy band structure of the -H,-OH,and -NH_(2) passivation groups on the surface of Ge were performed,and the interface state density and potential with five different passivation groups with N/O atomic ratios were accurately analyzed to obtain a stable surface state.Based on the theoretical calculation results,the surface passivation layers of the Ge_(2)ON_(2) film were prepared via magnetron sputtering in accordance with the optimum atomic ratio structure.The microstructure,C-V,and I-V electrical properties of the layers,and the passivation effect of the Al/Ge_(2)ON_(2)/Ge MOS were characterized to test the interface state density.The mean interface state density obtained by the Terman method was 8.4×10^(11) cm^(-2) eV^(-1).The processing of germanium oxynitrogen passivation films is expected to be used in direct dark matter detection of the HPGe detector surface passivation technology to reduce the detector leakage currents.

THUDosePD:a three-dimensional Monte Carlo platform for phantom dose assessment

Monte Carlo simulations are frequently utilized in radiation dose assessments.However,many researchers find the prevailing computing platforms to be intricate.This highlights a pressing need for a specialized framework for phantom dose evalua-tion.To address this gap,we developed a user-friendly radiation dose assessment platform using the Monte Carlo toolkit,Geant4.The Tsinghua University Phantom Dose(THUDosePD)augments the flexibility of Monte Carlo simulations in dosi-metric research.Originating from THUDose,a code with generic,functional,and application layers,THUDosePD focuses predominantly on anatomical phantom dose assessment.Additionally,it enables medical exposure simulation,intricate geometry creation,and supports both three-dimensional radiation dose analysis and phantom format transformations.The system operates on a multi-threaded parallel CPU architecture,with some modules enhanced for GPU parallel computing.Benchmark tests on the ICRP reference male illustrated the capabilities of THUDosePD in phantom dose assessment,covering the effective dose,three-dimensional dose distribution,and three-dimensional organ dose.We also conducted a voxelization conversion on the polygon mesh phantom,demonstrating the method’s efficiency and consistency.Extended applications based on THUDosePD further underline its broad adaptability.This intuitive,three-dimensional platform stands out as a valuable tool for phantom radiation dosimetry research.

Research on inversion method for complex source-term distributions based on deep neural networks

This study proposes a source distribution inversion convolutional neural network (SDICNN), which is deep neural network model for the inversion of complex source distributions, to solve inversion problems involving fixed-source distributions. A function is developed to obtain the distribution information of complex source terms from radiation parameters at individual sampling points in space. The SDICNN comprises two components:a fully connected network and a convolutional neural network. The fully connected network mainly extracts the parameter measurement information from the sampling points,whereas the convolutional neural network mainly completes the fine inversion of the source-term distribution. Finally, the SDICNN obtains a high-resolution source-term distribution image. In this study, the proposed source-term inversion method is evaluated based on typical geometric scenarios. The results show that, unlike the conventional fully connected neural network, the SDICNN model can extract the two-dimensional distribution features of the source terms, and its inversion results are better. In addition, the effects of the shielding mechanism and number of sampling points on the inversion process are examined. In summary, the result of this study can facilitate the accurate assessment of dose distributions in nuclear facilities.

Beam and image experiment of beam deflection electron gun for distributed X-ray sources

Distributed X-ray sources comprise a single vacuum chamber containing multiple X-ray sources that are triggered and emit X-rays at a specific time and location. This process facilitates an application for innovative system concepts in X-ray and computer tomography. This paper proposes a novel electron beam focusing, shaping,and deflection electron gun for distributed X-ray sources.The electron gun uses a dispenser cathode as an electron emitter, a mesh grid to control emission current, and two electrostatic lenses for beam shaping, focusing, and deflection. Novel focusing and deflecting electrodes were designed to increase the number of focal spots in the distributed source. Two identical half-rectangle opening electrodes are controlled by adjusting the potential of the two electrodes to control the electron beam trajectory, and then, multifocal spots are obtained on the anode target. The electron gun can increase the spatial density of the distributed X-ray sources, thereby improving the image quality. The beam experimental results show that the focal spot sizes of the deflected(deflected amplitude 10.5 mm)and non-deflected electron beams at full width at half maximum are 0.80 mm 90.50 mm and 0.55 mm 90.40 mm, respectively(anode voltage 160 kV; beam current 30 mA). The imaging experimental results demonstrate the excellent spatial resolution and time resolution of an imaging system built with the sources, which has an excellent imaging effect on a field-programmable gate array chip and a rotating metal disk.

CMGC: a CAD to Monte Carlo geometry conversion code

Automatic conversion from a computer-aided design(CAD) model to Monte Carlo geometry is one of the most effective methods for large-scale and detailed Monte Carlo modeling. The CAD to Monte Carlo geometry converter(CMGC) is a newly developed conversion code based on the boundary representation to constructive solid geometry(BRep→CSG) conversion method. The goal of the conversion process in the CMGC is to generate an appropriate CSG representation to achieve highly efficient Monte Carlo simulations. We designed a complete solid decomposition scheme to split a complex solid into as few nonoverlapping simple sub-solids as possible. In the complete solid decomposition scheme, the complex solid is successively split by so-called direct, indirect, and auxiliary splitting surfaces. We defined the splitting edge and designed a method for determining the direct splitting surface based on the splitting edge, then provided a method for determining indirect and auxiliary splitting surfaces based on solid vertices. Only the sub-solids that contain concave boundary faces need to be supplemented with auxiliary surfaces because the solid is completely decomposed, which will reduce the redundancy in the CSG expression. After decomposition, these sub-solids are located on only one side of their natural and auxiliary surfaces;thus, each sub-solid can be described by the intersections of a series of half-spaces or geometrical primitives. The CMGC has a friendly graphical user interface and can convert a CAD model into geometry input files for several Monte Carlo codes. The reliability of the CMGC was evaluated by converting several complex models and calculating the relative volume errors. Moreover, JMCT was used to test the efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulation. The results showed that the converted models performed well in particle transport calculations.

Evaluation of the passivation effect and the first-principles calculation on surface termination of germanium detector

The point-contact high-purity germanium detector(HPGe)has the advantages of low background,low energy threshold,and high energy resolution and can be applied in the detection of rare-event physics.However,the performance of HPGe must be further improved to achieve superior energy resolution,low noise,and long-term reliability.In this study,we combine computational simulations and experimental comparisons to deeply understand the passivation mechanism of Ge.The surface passivation effect is calculated and inferred from the band structure and density of interface states,and further con-firmed by the minority carrier lifetime.The first-principles method based on the density functional theory was adopted to systematically study the lattice structure,band structure,and density of state(DOS)of four different systems:Ge–H,Ge–Ge-NH 2,Ge-OH,and Ge-SiO_(x).The electronic char-acteristics of the Ge(100)unit cell with different passi-vation groups and Si/O atomic ratios were compared.This shows that H,N,and O atoms can effectively reduce the surface DOS of the Ge atoms.The passivation effect of the SiO_(x) group varied with increasing O atoms and Si/O atomic ratios.Experimentally,SiO and SiO_(2) passivation films were fabricated by electron beam evaporation on a Ge substrate,and the valence state of Si and resistivity was measured to characterize the film.The minority carrier lifetime of Ge-SiO_(2) is 21.3 ls,which is approximately quadruple that of Ge-SiO.The passivation effect and mechanism are discussed in terms of hopping conduction and surface defect density.This study builds a relationship between the passivation effect and different termination groups,and provides technical support for the potential passivation layer,which can be applied in Ge detectors with ultralow energy thresholds and especially in HPGe for rare-event physics detection experiments in future.

Surface metallization of PTFE and PTFE composites by ion implantation for low-background electronic substrates in rare-event detection experiments

Polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)is a low-background polymer that is applied to several applications in rare-event detection and underground low-background experiments.PTFE-based electronic substrates are important for reducing the detection limit of high-purity germanium detectors and scintillator calorimeters,which are widely applied in dark matter and 0υββdetection experiments.The traditional adhesive bonding method between PTFE and copper is not conducive to working in liquid nitrogen and extremely low-temperature environments.To avoid adhesive bonding,PTFE must be processed for surface metallization owing to the mismatch between the PTFE and copper conductive layer.Low-background PTFE matrix composites(m-PTFE)were selected to improve the electrical and mechanical properties of PTFE by introducing SiO_(2)/TiO_(2) particles.The microstructures,surface elements,and electrical properties of PTFE and m-PTFE were characterized and analyzed following ion implantation.PTFE and m-PTFE surfaces were found to be broken,degraded,and cross-linked by ion implantation,resulting in C=C conjugated double bonds,increased surface energy,and increased surface roughness.Comparably,the surface roughness,bond strength,and conjugated double bonds of m-PTFE were significantly more intense than those of PTFE.Moreover,the interface bonding theory between PTFE and the metal copper foil was analyzed using the direct metallization principle.Therefore,the peel strength of the optimized electronic substrates was higher than that of the industrial standard at extremely low temperatures,while maintaining excellent electrical properties.

THUBrachy:fast Monte Carlo dose calculation tool accelerated by heterogeneous hardware for high-dose-rate brachytherapy

The Monte Carlo(MC)simulation is regarded as the gold standard for dose calculation in brachytherapy,but it consumes a large amount of computing resources.The development of heterogeneous computing makes it possible to substantially accelerate calculations with hardware accelerators.Accordingly,this study develops a fast MC tool,called THUBrachy,which can be accelerated by several types of hardware accelerators.THUBrachy can simulate photons with energy less than 3 MeV and considers all photon interactions in the energy range.It was benchmarked against the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group No.43 Report using a water phantom and validated with Geant4 using a clinical case.A performance test was conducted using the clinical case,showing that a multicore central processing unit,Intel Xeon Phi,and graphics processing unit(GPU)can efficiently accelerate the simulation.GPU-accelerated THUBrachy is the fastest version,which is 200 times faster than the serial version and approximately 500 times faster than Geant4.The proposed tool shows great potential for fast and accurate dose calculations in clinical applications.

Efficient Terahertz Photoconductive Emitters with Improved Electrode Structures

We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of two new types of terahertz photoconductive emitters. One has an asymmetric four-contact electrode structure and the other has an arc-shaped electrode structure, which are all modified from a traditional strip line antenna. Numerical simulations and real experiments confirm the good performance of the proposed antennas. An amplitude increase of about 40% is experimentally observed for the terahertz signals generated from the new structures. The special electrode structure and its induced local bias field enhancement are responsible for this radiation efficiency improvement. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of developing highly efficient terahertz photoconductive emitters by optimizing the electrode structure.

Multi-frame speckle reduction in OCT using supercontinuum pumped by noise-like pulses

In most coherent imaging modality,speckle noise is a major cause that blurs the boundary of tissues and degrades the image contrast.By utilizing the unique properties of supercontinuum(SC)generated by noise-like pulses(NLPs)and a simple multi-frame averaging technique,we achieved significant speckle reduction in spectral domain optical coherence tomography(SD-OCT).We quantitatively compared the speckle of our proposed method with those of conventional swept source OCT(SS-OCT)and SD-OCT based on commercial light sources.The experimental results show that SC pumped by NLPs combined with noncoherent averaging method achieves better denoising performance in terms of contrast to noise ratio(CNR).

Searching for ^(76)Ge neutrinoless double beta decay with the CDEX-1B experiment

We operated a p-type point contact high purity germanium(PPCGe)detector(CDEX-1B,1.008 kg)in the China Jinping Underground Laboratory(CJPL)for 500.3 days to search for neutrinoless double beta(0νββ)decay of ^(76)Ge.A total of 504.3 kg⋅day effective exposure data was accumulated.The anti-coincidence and the multi/single-site event(MSE/SSE)discrimination methods were used to suppress the background in the energy region of interest(ROI,1989–2089 keV for this work)with a factor of 23.A background level of 0.33 counts/(keV⋅kg⋅yr)was realized.The lower limit on the half life of^(76)Ge 0νββdecay was constrained as T_(1/2)^(0ν)>1.0×10^(23)yr(90%C.L.),corresponding to the upper limits on the effective Majorana neutrino mass:<mββ><3.2–7.5 eV.

Probing dark matter particles from evaporating primordial black holes via electron scattering in the CDEX-10 experiment

Dark matter(DM)is a major constituent of the Universe.However,no definite evidence of DM particles(denoted as“χ”)has been found in DM direct detection(DD)experiments to date.There is a novel concept of detectingχfrom evaporating primordial black holes(PBHs).We search forχemitted from PBHs by investigating their interaction with target electrons.The examined PBH masses range from 1×10^(15)to 7×10^(16)g under the current limits of PBH abundance fPBH.Using 205.4 kg·day data obtained from the CDEX-10 experiment conducted in the China Jinping Underground Laboratory,we exclude theχ-electron(χ-e)elastic-scattering cross sectionσ_(χe)~5×10^(-29)cm^(2)forχwith a mass■keV from our results.With the higher radiation background but lower energy threshold(160 eV),CDEX-10 fills a part of the gap in the previous work.If(m_(χ),σ_(χe))can be determined in the future,DD experiments are expected to impose strong constraints on fPBHfor large MPBHs.

First results on ^(76)Ge neutrinoless double beta decay from CDEX-1 experiment

We report the first results on 76Ge neutrinoless double beta decay from stage one of the China dark-matter experiment （CDEX）. A p-type point-contact high-purity germanium detector with a mass of 994g has been installed to detect neutrinoless double beta decay events, as well as to directly detect dark matter particles. An exposure of 304kgd has been analyzed over a wide spectral band from 500keV to 3MeV. The average event rate obtained was about 0.012 counts per keV per kg per day over the 2.039MeV energy range. The half-life of76Ge neutrinoless double beta decay derived based on this result is 70v2〉6.4× 1022 yr （90%C.L.）. An upper limit on the effective Majorana-neutrino mass of 5.0eV has been achieved.

CDEX-1 1 kg point-contact germanium detector for low mass dark matter searches

The CDEX collaboration has been established for direct detection of light dark matter particles, using ultra-low energy threshold point-contact p-type germanium detectors, in China JinPing underground Laboratory （CJPL）. The first 1 kg point-contact germanium detector with a sub-keV energy threshold has been tested in a passive shielding system located in CJPL. The outputs from both the point-contact P＋ electrode and the outside N＋ electrode make it possible to scan the lower energy range of less than 1 keV and at the same time to detect the higher energy range up to 3 MeV. The outputs from both P＋ and N＋ electrode may also provide a more powerful method for signal discrimination for dark matter experiment. Some key parameters, including energy resolution, dead time, decay times of internal X-rays, and system stability, have been tested and measured. The results show that the 1 kg point-contact germanium detector, together with its shielding system and electronics, can run smoothly with good performances. This detector system will be deployed for dark matter search experiments.

Improved algorithms and coupled neutron-photon transport for auto-importance sampling method

The Auto-Importance Sampling（AIS） method is a Monte Carlo variance reduction technique proposed for deep penetration problems, which can significantly improve computational efficiency without pre-calculations for importance distribution. However, the AIS method is only validated with several simple examples, and cannot be used for coupled neutron-photon transport. This paper presents improved algorithms for the AIS method, including particle transport, fictitious particle creation and adjustment, fictitious surface geometry, random number allocation and calculation of the estimated relative error. These improvements allow the AIS method to be applied to complicated deep penetration problems with complex geometry and multiple materials. A Completely coupled Neutron-Photon Auto-Importance Sampling（CNP-AIS） method is proposed to solve the deep penetration problems of coupled neutron-photon transport using the improved algorithms. The NUREG/CR-6115 PWR benchmark was calculated by using the methods of CNP-AIS, geometry splitting with Russian roulette and analog Monte Carlo, respectively. The calculation results of CNP-AIS are in good agreement with those of geometry splitting with Russian roulette and the benchmark solutions. The computational efficiency of CNP-AIS for both neutron and photon is much better than that of geometry splitting with Russian roulette in most cases, and increased by several orders of magnitude compared with that of the analog Monte Carlo.

A novel CZT detector using strengthened electric field line anode

In this paper, we report on the design, simulation and testing of a novel CZT detector with an electrode named the Strengthened Electric Field Line Anode（SEFLA）. The Strengthened Electric Field（SEF） technique and Single Polarity Charge Sensing（SPCS） technique are implemented. It could achieve the same performance as Coplanar Grid, Pixel Array CZT detectors but requires only a simple readout system. Geant4, Ansoft Maxwell and a self-developed Induced Current Calculator（ICC） package are used to develop an understanding of how the energy spectrum is formed, and the parameters of the detector are optimized. A prototype is fabricated. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this design. The test shows that the SEFLA detector achieves a FWHM of6.0% @59.5 ke V and 1.6% @662 ke V, which matches well with the simulations.