Investigation of helium-3 ion usage in radiography for patient position verification in particle therapy

The report follows an investigation of the potential of helium-3 ions as an alternative to helium-4 ions in radiographic imaging within the context of helium ion therapy. The primary object was to determine whether helium-3 can achieve comparable or superior image quality to helium-4 ions. Monte Carlo simulations were employed to model the particle paths through a variety of phantom setups. The simulated data were then processed using image reconstruction techniques - most-likely-path (MLP) algorithm with point-of-interest binning (PIB). Image quality was assessed through several key metrics, including contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), spatial resolution, comparison with the theoretically expected image and low contrast resolution. The findings suggest that helium-3 ions have the potential to provide high-quality imaging in particle therapy, offering a viable alternative to helium-4.