title: Quantitative megavoltage radiation therapy dosimetry using the storage phosphor KCl: Eu2+.
abstract: This work, for the first time, reports the use of europium doped potassium chloride (KCl:Eu2+) storage phosphor for quantitative megavoltage radiation therapy dosimetry. In principle, KCl:Eu2+ functions using the same photostimulatated luminescence (PSL) mechanism as commercially available BaFBr0.85I0.15:Eu2+ material that is used for computed radiography (CR) but features a significantly smaller effective atomic number--18 versus 49--making it a potentially useful material for nearly tissue-equivalent radiation dosimetry. Cylindrical KCl:Eu2+ dosimeters, 7 mm in diameter and 1 mm thick, were fabricated in-house. Dosimetric properties, including radiation hardness, response linearity, signal fading, dose rate sensitivity, and energy dependence, were studied with a laboratory optical reader after irradiation by a linear accelerator. The overall experimental uncertainty was estimated to be within +/-2.5%. The findings were (1) KCl:Eu2+ showed satisfactory radiation hardness. There was no significant change in the stimulation spectra after irradiation up to 200 Gy when compared to a fresh dosimeter, indicating that this material could be reused at least 100 times if 2 Gy per use was assumed, e.g., for patient-specific IMRT QA. (2) KCl:Eu2+ exhibited supralinear response to dose after irradiation from 0 to 800 cGy. (3) After x ray irradiation, the PSL signal faded with time and eventually reached a fading rate of about 0.1 % /h after 12 h. (4) The sensitivity of the dosimeter was independent of the dose rate ranging from 15 to 1000 cGy/min. (5) The sensitivity showed no beam energy dependence for either open x ray or megavoltage electron fields. (6) Over-response to low-energy scattered photons was comparable to radiographic film, e.g., Kodak EDR2 film. By sandwiching dosimeters between low-energy photon filters (0.3 mm thick lead foils) during irradiation, the over-response was reduced. The authors have demonstrated that KCl:Eu2+ dosimeters have many desirable dosimetric characteristics that make the material conducive to radiation therapy dosimetry. In the future, a large-area KCl:Eu2+-based CR plate with a thickness of the order of a few microns, created using modern thin film techniques, could provide a reusable, quantitative, high-resolution two-dimensional dosimeter with minimal energy dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, 4921 Parkview Place, Campus Box 8224, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
authors.forename: Zhaohui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Driewer
authors.forename: Yuanshui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: H Harold
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005063:Europium / Q000737:chemistry*; D049408:Luminescent Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D017785:Photons; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011878:Radiotherapy; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D049408:Luminescent Agents; D005063:Europium; D011189:Potassium Chloride