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Miniaturized scintillator dosimeter for small field radiation therapy

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2021-05-11
JournalPhysics in Medicine and Biology
AuthorsMathieu Gonod, Carlos Chacon Avila, Miguel Angel SuĂĄrez, Julien Crouzilles, Samir Laskri
InstitutionsCentre Georges François Leclerc, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Citations17

Abstract The concept of a miniaturized inorganic scintillator detector is demonstrated in the analysis of the small static photon fields used in external radiation therapy. Such a detector is constituted by a 0.25 mm diameter and 0.48 mm long inorganic scintillating cell (1.6 × 10 −5 cm 3 detection volume) efficiently coupled to a narrow 125 μ m diameter silica optical fiber using a tiny photonic interface (an optical antenna). The response of our miniaturized scintillator detector (MSD) under 6 MV bremsstrahlung beam of various sizes (from 1 × 1 cm 2 to 4 × 4 cm 2 ) is compared to that of two high resolution reference probes, namely, a micro-diamond detector and a dedicated silicon diode. The spurious Cerenkov signal transmitted through our bare detector is rejected with a basic spectral filtering. The MSD shows a linear response regarding the dose, a repeatability within 0.1% and a radial directional dependence of 0.36% (standard deviations). Beam profiling at 5 cm depth with the MSD and the micro-diamond detector shows a mismatch in the measurement of the full widths at 80% and 50% of the maximum which does not exceed 0.25 mm. The same difference range is found between the micro-diamond detector and a silicon diode. The deviation of the percentage depth dose between the MSD and micro-diamond detector remains below 2.3% within the first fifteen centimeters of the decay region for field sizes of 1 × 1 cm 2 , 2 × 2 cm 2 and 3 × 3 cm 2 (0.76% between the silicon diode and the micro-diamond in the same field range). The 2D dose mapping of a 0.6 × 0.6 cm 2 photon field evidences the strong 3D character of the radiation-matter interaction in small photon field regime. From a beam-probe convolution theory, we predict that our probe overestimates the beam width by 0.06%, making our detector a right compromise between high resolution, compactness, flexibility and ease of use. The MSD overcomes problem of volume averaging, stem effects, and despite its water non-equivalence it is expected to minimize electron fluence perturbation due to its extreme compactness. Such a detector thus has the potential to become a valuable dose verification tool in small field radiation therapy, and by extension in Brachytherapy, FLASH-radiotherapy and microbeam radiation therapy.

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