Basic Characteristics of Dose Distributions of Photons Beam for Radiotherapeutic Applications Using YAG:Ce Crystal Detectors

Abstract

Thermostimulated luminescence (TSL) dosimetry is a versatile tool for the assessment of dose from ionizing radiation. In this work, the Ce3+ doped Y3Al5O12 garnet (YAG:Ce) with a density ρ = 4.56 g/cm3 and effective atomic number Zeff = 35 emerged as a prospective TSL material in radiotherapy applications due to its excellent radiation stability, uniformity of structural and optical properties, high yield of TSL, and good position of main glow peak around 290–300 °C. Namely, the set of TSL detectors produced from the YAG:Ce single crystal is used for identification of the uniformity of dose and energy spectra of X-ray radiation generated by the clinical accelerator with 6 MV and 15 MV beams located in Radiotherapy Department at the Oncology Center in Bydgoszcz, Poland. We have found that the YAG:Ce crystal detects shows very promising results for registration of X-ray radiation generated by the accelerator with 6 MV beam. The next step in the research is connected with application of TSL detectors based on the crystals of much heavier garnets than YAG. It is estimated that the LuAG:Ce garnet crystals with high density ρ = 6.0 g/cm3 and Zeff = 62 can be used to evaluate the X-rays produced by the accelerator with the 15 MV beam.