Program Information
Impact of a Magnetic Field On the Response From a Plastic Scintillation Detector
F Therriault-Proulx*, Z Wen , G Ibbott , S Beddar , UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Presentations
TH-CD-BRA-12 (Thursday, August 4, 2016) 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Room: Ballroom A
Purpose:
To study the effect of a strong magnetic field on the scintillation and the stem effect from a plastic scintillation detector (PSD) and evaluate its accuracy to measure dose.
Methods:
A plastic scintillation detector and a bare plastic fiber were placed inside a magnet of adjustable field strength (B=0-1.5T) and irradiated by a 6-MV photon beam (Elekta Versa HD LINAC). The PSD was built in-house using a scintillating fiber (BCF-60, 3-mm long x 1-mm diameter) coupled to an optical fiber similar to the bare fiber (PMMA, 12-m long, 1-mm diameter). Light output spectra were acquired with a spectrometer. Intensity and shape of the output spectra were compared as a function of the magnetic field strength. The bare fiber was used to study the behavior of the stem effect (composed of Cerenkov and fluorescence). The spectrometry setup allowed to perform a previously demonstrated hyperspectral stem-effect removal and calculated dose was studied as a function of the magnetic field strength.
Results:
Signal intensities were shown to increase with the magnetic field strength by up to 19% and 79% at 1.5T in comparison to the irradiation without a magnetic field, for respectively the PSD and the bare fiber. The light produced by Cerenkov effect in the optical fiber was shown to be the major component affected by the magnetic field. Effect of the magnetic field on the electrons trajectory may explain this behavior. Finally, accounting for the stem effect using the hyperspectral approach led to accuracy in dose measurement within 2.6%. Interestingly, variations in accuracy were negligible for values over 0.3T.
Conclusion:
Dependence of PSDs to magnetic field is mainly due to the Cerenkov light. When accounting for it, PSDs become a candidate of choice for both quality assurance and in vivo dosimetry of therapy under strong magnetic fields (e.g. for MRI-Linacs).
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