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The TOP-IMPLART project consists of the design and implementation of a linear proton accelerator, its control and monitoring systems for the treatment of superficial and semi-deep tumors. The energy of 150 MeV (corresponding to a penetration in tissue of about 15 cm) is a milestone in design being useful for the proton therapy treatment of almost 50% of tumors based on their position and depth (including ocular melanoma, head-neck tumors, pediatric tumors, and more superficial tumors). The capability to vary the intensity on a pulse-to-pulse basis combined with an electronic feedback system allows to get the required dose uniformity (2.5%) reducing the number of re-paintings. In this paper the state of the art and the objectives of the TOP-IMPLART project are described within the framework of the progress of Protontherapy.

The use of efficient wavelength-shifters from the vacuum-ultraviolet to the photosensor's range of sensitivity is a key feature in detectors for Dark Matter search and neutrino physics based on liquid argon scintillation detection. Thin film of Tetraphenyl-butadiene (TPB) deposited onto the surface delimiting the active volume of the detector and/or onto the photosensor optical window is the most common solution in current and planned experiments. Detector design and response can be evaluated and correctly simulated only when the properties of the optical system in use (TPB film + substrate) are fully understood. Characterization of the optical system requires specific, sometimes sophisticated optical methodologies. In this paper the main features of TPB coatings on different, commonly used substrates is reported, as a result of two independent campaigns of measurements at the specialized optical metrology labs of ENEA and University of Tor Vergata. Measured features include TPB emission spectra with lineshape and relative intensity variation recorded as a function of the film thickness and for the first time down to LAr temperature, as well as optical reflectance and transmittance spectra of the TPB coated substrates in the wavelength range of the TPB emission.

The spectrophotometric characterization of high efficiency, optically-active samples such as light-emitting organic bulks and thin films can be problematic because their broad-band luminescence is detected together with the monochromatic transmitted and reflected signals, hence perturbing measurements of optical transmittance and reflectance at wavelengths within the photoexcitation band. As a matter of fact, most commercial spectrophotometers apply spectral filtering before the light beam reaches the sample, not after it. In this Report, we introduce and discuss the method we have developed to correct photometric spectra that are perturbed by photoluminescence., Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures

This last Part IV is aimed at deriving relaxation rates (times) of an off-center Li+ impurity. We follow Christov's reaction rate method to define general rate equations in terms of the exact Mathieu eigenvalues, as well as of harmonic-oscillator eigenvalues approximating for the energy spectrum near the bottom of the reorientational wells. To calculate the rate in each particular case, we derive configurational tunneling probabilities by either Mathieu eigenfunctions or by harmonic oscillator eigenfunctions. The electron-transfer probability is calculated by generalizing Landau-Zener's method. Typical examples are considered and compared with experimental relaxation times in KCl:Li+., Comment: 17 pages including 2 figures and 4 tables, all pdf format

We carried out numerical calculations by an extended-Hueckel program in order to check the analytical results reported in the preceding Part I and Part II. We typically consider alkali halide clusters composed of some tens of constituent atoms to calculate electronic energies under static conditions or versus the displacements of particular atoms. Among other things, the off-center displacement of substitutional Li+ impurity in most alkali halides is evidenced. The trigonometric profile of the rotational barriers is also confirmed for KCl., Comment: 17 pages including 3 tables and 11 figures, all pdf format

Because of its inherent 2-D character, the eigenvalue equation for the hindered rotation around a normal cation site of an off-center impurity nearest-neighboring an F center is the well-known Mathieu equation. We present an overview of literature data on Mathieu's periodic functions providing exact solutions to the Li+ reorientational problem. We compare them with bottom-well approximating solutions by harmonic-oscillator functions at an effective vibrational frequency renormalized by both first- and third- order electron-mode coupling. We finally discuss the in-plane inversion polarizability of an off-center impurity assumed to form a dipole-dipole coupling with a nearby F center., Comment: 14 pages including 2 tables and 3(4) figures, all pdf format