Abstract
Linear accelerators (linacs) are the most common source of therapeutic radiation. Radiation is produced by rapid acceleration of electrons through a microwave wave guide followed by their bombardment of a heavy metal target. These high-energy electrons are stopped in the target and lose most of their energy as heat, but they also lose a small portion of their energy as X-rays (see Fig. 6.1). The X-rays produced have a range of energies with a maximum equal to the energy of the accelerated electrons. The average X-ray beam energy produced is approximately one third that of the maximum energy. A linac is named after the maximum energy of an X-ray it produces. The most common machines used for stereotactic radiosurgery have maximum energies between 4 million electron volts (MV) and 15 MV. At the University of Florida we use a 6 MV linac for stereotactic radiosurgery. A more complete description of radiation beam production is available in several references in the bibliography.
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© 1998 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.
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Friedman, W.A., Bova, F.J., Buatti, J.M., Mendenhall, W.M. (1998). Radiation Delivery. In: Linac Radiosurgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2176-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2176-0_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7445-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2176-0
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