MOSFET dosimetry with high spatial resolution in intense synchrotron-generated x-ray microbeams

Authors

Erik Siegbahn, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
E. Brauer-Krisch, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
Alberto Bravin, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
Heidi Nettelbeck, University of WollongongFollow
Michael Lerch, University of WollongongFollow
Anatoly B. Rosenfeld, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

25614

Publication Details

Siegbahn, E. A., Brauer-Krisch, E., Bravin, A., Nettelbeck, H., Lerch, M. L. F. & Rozenfeld, A. (2009). MOSFET dosimetry with high spatial resolution in intense synchrotron-generated x-ray microbeams. Medical Physics, 36 (4), 1128-1137.

Abstract

Various dosimeters have been tested for assessing absorbed doses with microscopic spatial resolution in targets irradiated by high-flux, synchrotron-generated, low-energy (∼30–300 keV) x-ray microbeams. A MOSFET detector has been used for this study since its radio sensitive element, which is extraordinarily narrow (∼1 μm), suits the main applications of interest, microbeam radiation biology and microbeam radiation therapy (MRT). In MRT, micrometer-wide, centimeter-high, and vertically oriented swaths of tissue are irradiated by arrays of rectangular x-ray microbeams produced by a multislit collimator (MSC). We used MOSFETs to measure the dose distribution, produced by arrays of x-ray microbeams shaped by two different MSCs, in a tissue-equivalent phantom. Doses were measured near the center of the arrays and maximum/minimum (peak/valley) dose ratios (PVDRs) were calculated to determine how variations in heights and in widths of the microbeams influenced this for the therapy, potentially important parameter. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the absorbed dose distribution in the phantom were also performed. The results show that when the heights of the irradiated swaths were below those applicable to clinical therapy (<1 mm) the MC simulations produce estimates of PVDRs that are up to a factor of 3 higher than the measured values. For arrays of higher microbeams (i.e., 25 μm×1 cm instead of 25×500 μm²), this difference between measured and simulated PVDRs becomes less than 50%. Closer agreement was observed between the measured and simulated PVDRs for the Tecomet^® MSC (current collimator design) than for the Archer MSC. Sources of discrepancies between measured and simulated doses are discussed, of which the energy dependent response of the MOSFET was shown to be among the most important.