Abstract

Thermal neutron capture by 10B is a nuclear process with significant applications mainly in basic sciences, industry and medicine. This nuclear reaction generates α particles and 7Li ions, both with high Linear Energy Transfer (LET). These particles have an average displacement of the same order of magnitude of the eukaryotic cell diameter, which allows them to induce various biological effects inside the cell. To achieve a complete characterization of the boron neutron capture reaction, a Monte Carlo simulation was implemented via the Toolkit Geant4. The Linear Energy Transfer (LET) was calculated in this simulation, with the incident neutron beam energy set at 0.025eV. As the target, a water phantom with a 0.1% concentration of ¹⁰B was utilized. According to the results obtained, the α particles reach peak LET values close to 250keV/μm, while for 7Li ions, LET peak values of around 400keV/μm are found.

Keywords:Neutron radiation; Neutron capture therapy; Boron; Geant4; Medical Physics