O'Keeffe, S,Zhao, WH,Sun, WM,Zhang, DX,Qin, Z,Chen, ZY,Ma, Y,Lewis, E

2016

May

Ieee Journal Of Selected Topics In Quantum Electronics

An Optical Fibre-Based Sensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Clinical Linear Accelerator Radiotherapy Delivery

Published

()

Clinical external beam radiotherapy fluorescent and luminescent sensors optical fibre sensors real time radiation dose measurement X-ray dosimetry RADIATION DOSIMETER THERAPY GAMMA BRACHYTHERAPY TLD

22

A novel real-time optical fibre X-Ray dosimeter for monitoring the radiation pulses delivered from a clinical linear accelerator (Linac) is presented. The primary focus of the sensor is to measure low doses of ionising X-ray radiation in real time (limited to 0.1-ms gate time of the detector). The sensor tip material scintillates upon exposure to X-ray energy and the resultant low-level visible light signal is coupled to a polymethyl methacrylate plastic optical fibre, which is used to guide it towards a distal avalanche photodiode-based detector. The detector measures the low-level scintillating light from the sensor, thereby converting the ionizing radiation energy to a measurable signal with a time resolution of 0.1 ms. Results show that the scintillating optical fibre X-ray dosimeter is capable of capturing the individual X-Ray pulses delivered by the Linac during normal operation. Further examination of the results demonstrates that the sensor is capable of measuring dose rate and, hence, dose with a linearity (R-2 = 0.9995 - 0.9999) and in a highly repeatable manner for dose rates in the range 100 to 600 monitor units/min.

10.1109/JSTQE.2015.2482945