A liquid fluorescence dosimeter for proton dosimetry

Abstract

The pyromellitic acid (benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracrboxylic acid) dosimeter is a liquid, nearly tissue equivalent detector (the density of the solution is 1.000 56 g cm−3). This acid fluoresces after exposure to proton radiation, if excited with light. The detector was exposed to proton doses of 1.0–10.0 Gy (energies: 138 and 160 MeV). The correlation between fluorescence intensity and delivered energy dose is one to one and linear, whereby the deviation from the linear behavior for all measured values is less than 1%. Variations of the dose rate between 2.4 and 6.0 Gy s−1 had no influence on the correlation between dose and fluorescence. The quenching of the pyromellitic acid detector amounts to about 22% for 138 MeV protons in the Bragg peak. For the period of 1–26 days after exposure, an increase in fluorescence intensity of the exposed solutions (5.0 Gy) was noticed, which corresponds to a daily data drift averaging 0.91% if the solution is stored in the dark at 4 °C. Non-exposed solutions showed no change of the control value.