Vertical challenge

An ion beam — which its developers claim will be the highest-resolution instrument of its type in the world — could allow cancer care to be tailored for individual patients.

Capable of sending a single ion through a single cell, the vertical scanning nanobeam is to be built at the University of Surrey.

Ion beam research uses electrical fields to accelerate protons — hydrogen ions — to speeds of around 112million km/hr, then focus them to a point so they can be used to study minerals and biological materials.

Several types of information can be gathered by this method, by looking at how the protons are scattered from the target and the types of radiation the bombardment causes. This can show how the subject interacts with radiation and can provide information on the distribution of elements on both the surface and inside the material.

Focusing beams

Beams are generally described in terms of their energy — in the Surrey beam’s case, some 2MV — and their resolution. A millibeam will focus to a dot about a millimetre across, while a microbeam will focus to a few microns. The Surrey instrument will be a nanobeam, using an electrostatic lens to focus the beam to a point around 10nm across, said Surrey’s Ion Beam