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

Sinead O'Keeffe, Wenhui Zhao, Weimin Sun, Daxin Zhang, Zhuang Qin, Ziyin Chen, Yu Ma, Elfed Lewis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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 (R2 = 0.9995-0.9999) and in a highly repeatable manner for dose rates in the range 100 to 600 monitor units/min.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7286739
Pages (from-to)35-42
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Volume22
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2016

Keywords

  • Clinical External Beam Radiotherapy
  • Fluorescent and Luminescent Sensors
  • Optical Fibre sensors
  • Real Time Radiatio Dose Measurement
  • X-ray Dosimetry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An Optical Fibre-Based Sensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Clinical Linear Accelerator Radiotherapy Delivery'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this