Comparison of Ge-doped TL optical fibres and glass beads with ion chamber and Gafchromic film for small field photon dosimetry

Small field (≤ 4 × 4 cm) photon radiotherapy treatments include intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). These require small, high spatial resolution dosimeters of adequate dynamic range. In this study, field sizes of 1 cm × 1 cm, 2 cm × 2 cm, 3 cm × 3 cm, 4 cm × 4 cm, and 10 cm × 10 cm have been investigated using commercially available silica-based fibres and glass beads (GB) as TL dosimeters and a Varian linear accelerator operating at 6, 10 and 15 MV. Ge-doped SiO2 fibres have previously been shown by this group to offer a viable system for use as dosimeters. The fibres and GB, offer good spatial resolution (∼120 μm and 2 mm respectively), large dynamic dose range (with linearity from tens of mGy up to well in excess of many tens of Gy), a non-hygroscopic nature and low cost. The main aim of this present work is to investigate the use of Ge-doped optical fibres and GBs as thermoluminescence dosimeters in small photon fields for different photon beam energies, comparing the measurements against Gafchromic films, hospital commissioning data obtained from small ionisation chambers and photon diodes and Monte Carlo simulations with FLUKA and BEAMnrc.