RESUMEN
LiF:Mg,Cu,Ag is a new dosimetry material that is similar to LiF:Mg,Cu,P in terms of dosimetric properties. The effect of the annealing temperature in the range of 200 to 350°C on the thermoluminescence (TL) sensitivity and the glow curve structure of this material at different concentrations of silver (Ag) was investigated. It has been demonstrated that the optimum values of the annealing temperature and the Ag concentration are 240°C and 0.1 mol% for better sensitivity, respectively. The TL intensity decreases at annealing temperatures lower than 240°C or higher than 240°C, reaching a minimum at 300°C and then again increases for various Ag concentrations. It was observed that the glow curve structure altered and the area under the low temperature peak as well as the area under the main dosimetric peak decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The position of the main dosimetric peak moved in the direction of higher temperatures, but at 320 and 350°C annealing temperatures, it shifted to lower temperatures. It was also observed that the TL sensitivity could partially be recovered by a combined annealing procedure.
Asunto(s)
Sustancias Luminiscentes/química , Dosimetría Termoluminiscente/métodos , Cobre/química , Fluoruros/química , Compuestos de Litio/química , Magnesio/química , Plata/química , Espectroscopía Infrarroja por Transformada de Fourier , Temperatura , Difracción de Rayos XRESUMEN
Radiotherapy represents the most widely spread technique to control and treat cancer. To increase the treatment efficiency, high energy linacs are used. However, applying high energy photon beams leads to a non-negligible dose of neutrons contaminating therapeutic beams. In addition, using conventional linacs necessitates applying wedge filters in some clinical conditions. However, there is not enough information on the effect of these filters on the photoneutrons produced. The aim of this study was to investigate the change of photoneutron dose equivalent due to the use of linac wedge filters. A high energy (18 MV) linear accelerator (Elekta SL 75/25) was studied. Polycarbonate films were used to measure the dose equivalent of photoneutrons. After electrochemical etching of the films, the neutron dose equivalent was calculated using Hp(10) factor, and its variation on the patient plane at 0, 5, 10, 50 and 100 cm from the center of the X-ray beam was determined. By increasing the distance from the center of the X-ray beam towards the periphery, the photoneutron dose equivalent decreased rapidly for the open and wedged fields. Increasing of the field size increased the photoneutron dose equivalent. The use of wedge filter increased the proportion of the neutron dose equivalent. The increase can be accounted for by the selective absorption of the high energy photons by the wedge filter.