Organic Electronics and Organic Scintillators in Radiation Detection Applications

电离辐射在疾病，特别是癌症的诊断和治疗中起着非常重要的作用。据估计，大约一半的癌症患者在治疗期间应该接受某种形式的放射治疗。虽然辐射具有控制甚至治愈癌症的潜力，但如果不安全使用，它也有可能造成巨大的危害。安全使用辐射的条件是能够准确测量辐射场的不同性质。为此目的设计的工具称为辐射探测器和剂量计。理想的剂量计应该像人体一样对辐射做出反应，但现在使用的大多数剂量计都是由与组织不是特别相似的材料制成的。这项拟议的工作旨在开发一种基于有机电子设备的新型辐射探测器和剂量计。有机电子一词用于描述其组成至少包括一些有机材料(即碳基)的电子设备，这些有机材料在其作为电子设备的功能中发挥作用。在辐射传感和剂量学应用的背景下，有机电子是有吸引力的，因为它们的组成可以被优化，以使它们对辐射场的响应与人体组织的响应相似。在过去的几年里，我的实验室一直在研究这些设备在辐射领域的表现。此外，我们一直在研究有机电子器件(特别是光电二极管)与塑料闪烁体(暴露在辐射中会发光的材料)的组合--我们称之为无茎塑料闪烁探测器(SPSD)。这些研究的结果非常令人鼓舞，并确定了许多新的探索途径。在目前的提案中，我们将：开发模拟平台，以计算不同设备对辐射领域的预期响应；开发方法，预测材料的最佳组合，以制造高灵敏度的SPSD；提高SPSD的性能；将高效钙钛矿型太阳能电池纳入SPSD设计；设计和评估SPSD阵列，以允许研究辐射领域中的二维能量分布；开发可用于喷墨打印技术的闪烁型“墨水”，以高成本效益的方式生产SPSD阵列；探索无线有机电子探测器的设计和使用；这些目标将使我的实验室在有机电子辐射探测器和剂量计的开发和评估方面成为全球领先者。

Ionizing radiation plays a very important role in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, particularly cancer. It is estimated that approximately half of all cancer patients should receive some form of radiation therapy during the management of their disease. While radiation has the potential to control and even cure cancer, it also has the potential to do great harm if it is not used safely. A condition for safe use of radiation is the ability to accurately measure different properties of a radiation field. Tools designed for this purpose are called radiation detectors and dosimeters. An ideal dosimeter should respond to radiation in the same way that the human body does, but most dosimeters used today are made from materials that are not particularly similar to tissue. The proposed work seeks to develop a new class of radiation detectors and dosimeters that is based on organic electronic devices. The term organic electronics is used to describe electronic devices whose composition includes at least some organic material (i.e. carbon-based) that plays a role in its functionality as an electronic device. In the context of radiation sensing and dosimetry applications, organic electronics are attractive because their composition can be optimized to tailor their response to radiation fields to be similar to that of human tissue. Over the last several years, my lab has been studying how these devices perform in fields of radiation. In addition, we have been studying the combination of organic electronic devices (in particular photodiodes) with plastic scintillators (material that gives off light when it is exposed to radiation) - a combination we have called the stemless plastic scintillation detector (SPSD). The results of these studies have been very encouraging and have identified many new avenues of exploration. In the current proposal, we will:  - Develop a simulation platform to calculate the expected response of different devices to fields of radiation  - Develop methods to predict optimal combinations of materials to make highly sensitive SPSDs  - Improve the performance of SPSDs  - Incorporate highly efficient perovskite solar cells into the SPSD design  - Design and evaluate arrays of SPSDs to permit the study of 2-dimensional distribution of energy in a radiation field  - Develop scintillating "inks" that can be used in ink jet printing technology to produce arrays of SPSDs in a highly cost-effective manner  - Explore the design and use of wireless organic electronic detectors Together, these objectives will position my lab to be a global leader in the development and evaluation of organic electronics-based radiation detectors and dosimeters.