Innovative detection methods for radiation hardness

The thesis deals with new methods for the characterization of ion beams and detection of radiation used in radiation hardness applications, namely charged particles, X- and gamma-radiation and neutrons. As far as the detection of charged particles, X- and gamma- rays the radiochromic films, dosimeters intensively employed in medical physics, were found suitable for these purposes. The calibration of radiochromic films was carried out with the law that describe the physical phenomenon of the film darkening. On this line the independence of the response of a kind of film to incident radiation type, energy and dose rate was demonstrated. These results were crucial for the full dosimetry characterization of a 90-Sr/90-Y beta source, recently proposed as irradiation source for Total Ionizing Dose tests as alternative to the well-established 60-Co source. Furthermore, since standard methods of reading of radiochromic films do not allow real-time dosimetry, the design, development and related tests of a new opto-electronic-based real-time radiochromic film reader is presented in this thesis. Owing to the wide employment of radiochromic films in the applications and to the potential diffusion on the market, a National Patent was filed in January 2018 through the INFN Tech-Transfer. The problem of neutron detection and production has been addressed at two charged particle accelerators. In particular, for the first time a neutron beam line was implemented at the IBA 18/18 medical cyclotron of University of Bern and the test of a new prototype of polysiloxane-based scintillator was carried out at the tandem accelerator of Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) in Catania. All these topics are discussed in this thesis and in dedicated publications on international scientific journals.