Spectral discrimination of Cerenkov radiation in scintillating dosimeters

Radiation therapy accelerators require highly accurate dose deposition and the output must be monitored frequently and regularly. Ionization chambers are the primary tool for this control, but their size, their high voltage needed, and the correction needed for electrons make them unsuitable for use during patient treatment. We have developed a small (1-mm-diam and I-mm-long active part), flexible, and water-equivalent dosimeter. It is suitable for photon and electron beams without corrections, and performs on line dose measurements. This detector is based on only one scintillating fiber and a CCD camera. A new signal processing is used to remove the effect of Cerenkov radiation background, which only requires a preliminary calibration. Central-axis depth-dose distribution comparisons have been achieved with standard ionization chambers, over a range from 8 to 25 MV photons and from 6 to 21 MeV electrons in order to validate this calibration. Results show a very good agreement, with less than 1% difference between the two detectors. (C) 2005 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.