Automation of the particle dosimetry and the dose application for radiobiological experiments at a vertical proton beam

A facility with a vertical beam for radiobiological experiments with low-energy protons has been setup at the Tandem accelerator at Erlangen. This energy region is optimal to investigate the biological effects of the linear energy transfer in the Bragg region under physiological conditions. A new automated data acquisition system for dosimetry and monitoring based on a personal computer was developed and optimized for this setup. A specially designed sample holder offers possibilities of cooling or changing of atmosphere during irradiation. First irradiations of biological samples have shown the functionality of the setup.