RESUMO
A microSilicon™ (PTW type 60023), a new unshielded diode detector succeeding Diode E (model 60017, PTW), was characterized for electron beam dosimetry and compared with other detectors. Electron beams generated from a TrueBeam linear accelerator were measured using the microSilicon, Diode E, and microDiamond synthetic single-crystal diamond detector. Positional accuracy of microSilicon was measured by data collected in air and water. The percent depth dose (PDD), off-center ratio (OCR), dose-response linearity, dose rate dependence, and cone factors were evaluated. The PDDs were compared with data measured using a PPC40 plane-parallel ionization chamber. The maximum variations of depth of 50% and 90% of the maximum dose, and practical depth among all detectors and energies were 0.9 mm. The maximum variations of the bremsstrahlung dose among all detectors and energies were within 0.3%. OCR showed good agreement within 1% for the flat and tail regions. The microSilicon detector showed a penumbra width similar to microDiamond, whereas Diode E showed the steepest penumbra shape. All detectors showed good dose-response linearity and stability against the dose rate; only Diode E demonstrated logarithmic dose rate dependency. The cone factor measured with microSilicon was within ±1% for all energies and cone sizes. We demonstrated that the characteristics of microSilicon is suitable for electron beam dosimetry. The microSilicon detector can be a good alternative for electron beam dosimetry in terms of providing an appropriate PDD curve without corrections, high spatial resolution for OCR measurements and cone factors.
RESUMO
In this study, we aimed to compare the polarity correction factor in ionization chambers for flattening filter free (FFF) photon beams and flattening filter (FF) beams. Measurements were performed with both 6 and 10 MV FFF and FF beams. Five commercial ionization chambers were evaluated: PTW TN30013; IBA Dosimetry CC01, CC04, and CC13; and Exradin A12S. Except for the CC01 ionization chamber, the other four chambers showed less than a 0.3 % difference in the polarity effect between the FFF and the FF beams. The CC01 chamber showed a strong field-size-dependence, unlike the other chambers. The polarity effect for all chambers with FFF beams did not change with the dose rate. Except in the case of the CC01 chamber, the difference in the polarity effect between FFF and FF beams was not significant.
