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Amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) is becoming an increasingly important technological material. Transport in this material is conceptualized as the heavy disorder of the material causing a conduction or mobility band-edge that randomly varies and undulates in space across the entire system. Thus, transport is envisioned as being dominated by percolation physics as carriers traverse this varying band-edge landscape of "hills" and "valleys". It is then something of a missed opportunity to model such a system using only a compact approach-despite this being the primary focus of the existing literature-as such a system can easily be faithfully reproduced as a true microscopic TCAD model with a real physically varying potential. Thus, in this work, we develop such a "microscopic" TCAD model of a-IGZO and detail a number of key aspects of its implementation. We then demonstrate that it can accurately reproduce experimental results and consider the issue of the addition of non-conducting band-tail states in a numerically efficient manner. Finally, two short studies of 3D effects are undertaken to illustrate the utility of the model: specifically, the cases of variation effects as a function of device size and as a function of surface roughness scattering.

We have investigated the nucleation and growth of InGaZnO thin films by spatial atmospheric atomic layer deposition. Diethyl zinc (DEZ), trimethyl indium (TMIn), triethyl gallium (TEGa), and water were used as Zn, In, Ga and oxygen precursors, respectively. The vaporized metal precursors have been coinjected in the reactor. The metal composition of InGaZnO has been controlled by varying the TMIn or TEGa flow to the reactor, for a given DEZ flow and exposure time. The morphology of the films changes from polycrystalline, for ZnO and In-doped ZnO, to amorphous for In-rich IZO and InGaZnO. The use of these films as the active channel in TFTs has been demonstrated and the influence of In and Ga cations on the electrical characteristics of the TFTs has been studied.

Organic thin film devices are investigated for many diverse applications, including light emitting diodes, organic photovoltaic and organic field effect transistors. Modeling of their properties on the basis of their detailed molecular structure requires generation of representative morphologies, many of which are amorphous. Because time-scales for the formation of the molecular structure are slow, we have developed a linear-scaling single molecule deposition protocol which generates morphologies by simulation of vapor deposition of molecular films. We have applied this protocol to systems comprising argon, buckminsterfullerene, N,N-Di(naphthalene-1-yl)-N,N'-diphenyl-benzidine, mer-tris(8-hydroxy-quinoline)aluminum(III), and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester, with and without postdeposition relaxation of the individually deposited molecules. The proposed single molecule deposition protocol leads to formation of highly ordered morphologies in argon and buckminsterfullerene systems when postdeposition relaxation is used to locally anneal the configuration in the vicinity of the newly deposited molecule. The other systems formed disordered amorphous morphologies and the postdeposition local relaxation step has only a small effect on the characteristics of the disordered morphology in comparison to the materials forming crystals., (Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The rapidly growing use of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatments in radiation therapy calls for a quantitative, automated, and reliable quality assurance (QA) procedure that can be used routinely in the clinical setting. In this work, we present a series VMAT QA procedures used to assess dynamic multi-leaf collimator (MLC) positional accuracy, variable dose-rate accuracy, and MLC leaf speed accuracy. The QA procedures were performed using amorphous silicon electronic portal imaging devices (EPID) to determine the long term stability of the measured parameters on two Varian linear accelerators. The measurements were repeated weekly on both linear accelerators for a period of three months and the EPID images were analyzed using custom Matlab software. The results of the picket fence tests indicate that MLC leaf positions can be identified to within 0.11 mm and 0.15 mm for static gantry delivery and VMAT delivery respectively. In addition, the dose-rate, gantry speed and MLC leaf speed tests both show very good stability over the measurement period. The measurements thus far, suggest that a number of the dosimetry tests may be suitable for quarterly QA for Varian iX and Trilogy linacs. However, additional measurements are required to confirm the frequency with which each test is required for safe and reliable VMAT delivery at our centre., (© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Purpose: To investigate the sensitivity of a Monte Carlo (MC) model of a standard clinical amorphous silicon (a-Si) electron portal imaging device (EPID) to variations in optical photon transport parameters., Methods: The Geant4 MC toolkit was used to develop a comprehensive model of an indirect-detection a-Si EPID incorporating x-ray and optical photon transport. The EPID was modeled as a series of uniform layers with properties specified by the manufacturer (PerkinElmer, Santa Clara, CA) of a research EPID at our centre. Optical processes that were modeled include bulk absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and boundary processes (reflection and refraction). Model performance was evaluated by scoring optical photons absorbed by the a-Si photodiode as a function of radial distance from a point source of x-rays on an event-by-event basis (0.025 mm resolution). Primary x-ray energies were sampled from a clinical 6 MV photon spectrum. Simulations were performed by varying optical transport parameters and the resulting point spread functions (PSFs) were compared. The optical parameters investigated include: x-ray transport cutoff thresholds; absorption path length; optical energy spectrum; refractive indices; and the 'roughness' of boundaries within phosphor screen layers., Results: The transport cutoffs and refractive indices studied were found to minimally affect resulting PSFs. A monoenergetic optical spectrum slightly broadened the PSF in comparison with the use of a polyenergetic spectrum. The absorption path length only significantly altered the PSF when decreased drastically. Variations in the treatment of boundaries noticeably broadened resulting PSFs., Conclusions: Variation in optical transport parameters was found to affect resulting PSF calculations. Current work is focusing on repeating this analysis with a coarser resolution more typical of a commercial a-Si EPID to observe if these effects continue to alter the EPID PSF. Experimental measurement of the EPID line spread function to validate these results is also underway. Cancer Institute NSW Research Equipment Grants 10/REG/1-20 and 10/REG/1-10 Cancer Council NSW Grant, ID RG 11-06 NHMRC Project Grant, ID569211 The University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Medical Physics SWSCS Radiation Oncology Student Scholarship, 2012., (© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Purpose: The increasing use of unflattened high dose rate and/or small sized fields in stereotactic body radiosurgery (SBRT) presents a significant challenge and calls for new tools for dosimetric measurements and quality assurance (QA). The purpose of this work is to investigate a high spatial resolution (0.2mm) and high frame rate (50Hz) amorphous silicon flat-panel electronic portal imaging device (EPID) from Perkin Elmer for SBRT., Methods: A Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) simulation and convolution based calibration procedure has been developed to derive a voxel-based response function specific to the EPID construct and beam characteristics. Both standard photon beams and flattening filter free (FFF) beams of all energies from Varian TrueBeam STX were studied and the linearity and dose rate dependence were tested. EPID with detailed materials composition was simulated using the MCNPX to generate a scatter kernel composed of dose deposition in the EPID phosphor, and optical photon spreading and to deconvolve the EPID images to high spatial resolution photon fluence map. The fluence map was convolved with MCNPX generated kernels to the 3D dose distribution in the phantom and compared with pinpoint ion chamber and film measurements., Results: EPID response showed excellent linearity (R2>0.9998) and dose rate dependence less than 1.8% for up to 2400MU/min. Output factors for field sizes ranging from 1×1 to 20×20cm 2 were measured and used to fit the optical photon glare kernel. Fluence profiles deconvolved using MCNPX scattering kernel agrees with the measurements to within 2%. Results of typical pre-treatment QA test exhibit excellent spatial resolution required for SBRT., Conclusions: The high spatial resolution and high frame rate EPID proved to be an accurate and efficient tool for SBRT QA. Through convolution with MCNPX scattering core and comprehensive EPID calibration, accurate 3D dose maps can be generated for independent dosimetric verification of SBRT treatments., (© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Purpose: In dose guided radiation therapy, incident fluence is one of the important parameters for both influence verification and dose reconstruction. The objective of this investigation was to develop a method to obtain the incident fluence for dose reconstruction in dose guided radiation therapy (DGRT)., Methods: An incident fluence reconstruction model based on Monte Carlo Finite-size pencil beam (MCFSPB) model and "Matthew Effect" Conjugate-gradient (CG) algorithm was developed, where the MCFSPB model was developed by FDS Team (www.fds.org.cn) and the "Matthew Effect" was proposed to advance the accuracy of CG lgorithm. Then, by measuring dose with amorphous silicon flat panel (a-Si flat panel), the incident fluence was unfolded. An artifical head phantom was used to test sample. By using the incident fluence to dose calculation with MCFSPB, the 2D and 3D dose was also reconstructed and compared with the measurement dose and the planing dose respectively. The Passing Rate of Dose Difference (PRDD) in 3% was used to learn the accuracy., Results: Two representative cases (6MV and 10MV) with both five beams were used for beam-by-beam verification, and the corresponding incident fluence was obtained. By comparing the measurement dose with the calculation dose on measurement plane, the results showed that the PRDD (3%) in field was 100%. And by comparing 3D plannning dose with 3D reconstructed dose, the results indicated that the PRDD (3%) in field was 95%∼98%., Conclusions: The incident fluence reconstruction model based on MCFSPB model and "Matthew Effect" Conjugate-gradient algorithm was developed. The tested results indicated its accuracy. This study is expected to be applied to 3D dose reconstruction and 3D dosimetric verification in DGRT. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation under grant No.30900386 and the National Science Foundation of Anhui Province (Nos.090413095 and 111040606Q55)., (© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

The movement of a micro cantilever was detected via a self constructed portable data acquisition prototype system which integrates a linear array of 32 1D amorphous silicon position sensitive detectors (PSD). The system was mounted on a microscope using a metal structure platform and the movement of the 30 μm wide by 400 μm long cantilever was tracked by analyzing the signals acquired by the 32 sensor array electronic readout system and the relevant data algorithm. The obtained results show a linear behavior of the photocurrent relating X and Y movement, with a non-linearity of about 3%, a spatial resolution of less than 2 μm along the lateral dimension of the sensor as well as of less than 3 μm along the perpendicular dimension of the sensor, when detecting just the micro-cantilever, and a spatial resolution of less than 1 μm when detecting the holding structure.

Purpose: to investigate the impact of low atomic number (Z) targets and detector design on megavoltage (MV) portal image contrast., Methods and Materials: two experimental beams were generated by replacing flattening filtration of a 2100EX linac with beryllium (Be) and aluminum (Al) targets and using the linac in 6 MeV electron mode. A standard MV contrast phantom was used to quantify planar image contrast for the standard 6MV and the 6MeVAl beam, incident on an amorphous silicon (a-Si) detector. Contrast versus separation for 6MV and 6MeV/Al was quantified using a 1 cm bone/solid water slab within increasing thicknesses of solid water. The Monte Carlo BEAMnrc/DOXYZnrc package was used to model beam generation and detection. The beam/detector model was validated with comparison to measured open field profiles., Results: Low-Z target spectra differ significantly from the standard 6MV spectrum with Be-target and Al-target peaks at ∼ 25keV and ∼50keV, respectively. Approximately 1/3 rd of the photon population is below 60keV for the 4MeV/Be beam. Planar contrast is increased significantly over that of 6MV using low-Z targets, showing additional improvement with removal of the detector's copper build-up layer. Contrast decreases with increasing separation more rapidly for 6MeV/Al than for 6MV; however contrast for the former is superior over the full range of separation examined., Conclusions: Use of low-Z linac target materials improves MV image contrast. An additional advantage is realized by removing the copper layer from the a-Si detector., Conflict of Interest: This research has been sponsored by Varian Medical Systems, Incorporated., (© 2008 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Amorphous silicon (a-Si) electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) have been heavily investigated as treatment verification tools, with a particular focus on intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). This verification could be accomplished through a comparison of measured portal images to predicted images. A general fluence determination for portal dose image prediction would be a great asset in order to model the complex modulation of IMRT. A physically-based parameter fluence model was developed by matching multi-leaf collimator defined predicted images to measured image profiles. The fluence model was composed of a focal Gaussian and extrafocal Gaussian-like source (Pearson VII). Specific aspects of the MLCs and secondary collimators were also modeled (eg. jaw and MLC transmission factors, MLC rounded leaf tips, tongue and groove effect, interleaf leakage, MLC offsets). The resulting calculated fluence was then convolved with Monte Carlo generated EPID-specific dose kernels to convert incident fluence to dose delivered to the EPID. Measured EPID data was obtained with an a-Si EPID for various MLC-defined fields (1×1 to 20×20 cm 2 ) over a range of source-to-imager distances. These measured profiles were used to determine the fluence model parameters and the resulting model was tested on prostate and oropharyngeal IMRT fields. The model predicted the open-field profiles within 2%, 2mm, while the predicted IMRT fields were generally within 3%, 3mm for at least 96% of the pixels. This model demonstrates the necessary accuracy needed for IMRT portal dose image prediction in complex clinical examples (<3%, 3mm) and could be used for pre-treatment verification., (© 2008 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)