title: On the field-size dependence of relative output from a linear accelerator.
abstract: The radiation output in air on the central axis of a linac photon beam has been modeled as the sum of two components. These are a point source representing radiation direct from the target and a distributed source representing scatter in the flattening filter and primary collimator. By fitting only two parameters, the ratio of the two components for a 20 x 20 field and a width parameter for the distributed source this semi-empirical model describes the relative outputs of square, symmetric rectangular, and asymmetric rectangular fields with an average error of 0.25% for the field sizes studied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, Northeastern Ontario Regional Cancer Centre, Sudbury, Canada.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Dunscombe
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Nieminen
mesh_terms: D010315:Particle Accelerators; D011827:Radiation