Imaging principle and experiment results of an 11 MeV low-energy proton radiography system

Differing from radiography without lens system, the high-energy proton radiography (PRAD) uses Zumbro lens system to focus the penetrating protons. Since the Zumbro lens system is able to limit the range of multiple Coulomb scattering angles of the protons, the low-energy PRAD with Zumbro lens system is also feasible, although the attenuation of probing protons in the object is negligible. Low-energy PRAD is superior to the high-energy PRAD for diagnosing the objects of small thicknesses. To verify the imaging principle of Zumbro lens system, 11 MeV PRAD experiments were performed at the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) recently. The experiment results demonstrated that this 11 MeV PRAD was able to radiograph objects of area density less than 2.7 x 10(-2) g/cm(2) and the area density discrepancy less than 2.3% could be distinguished.