Fabricated germanium-doped fibres for computed tomography dosimetry

Abstract

For a range of doses familiarly incurred in computed tomography (CT), study is made of the performance of Germanium (Ge)-doped fibre dosimeters formed into cylindrical and flat shapes. Indigenously fabricated 2.3 mol% and 6 mol% Ge-dopant concentration preforms have been used to produce flat- and cylindrical-fibres (FF and CF) of various size and diameters; an additional 4 mol% Ge-doped commercial fibre with a core diameter of 50 μm has also been used. The key characteristics examined include the linearity index f(d), dose sensitivity and minimum detectable dose (MDD), the performance of the fibres being compared against that of lithium-fluoride based TLD-100 thermoluminescence (TL) dosimeters. For doses in the range 2-40 milligray (mGy), delivered at constant potential of 120 kilovoltage (kV), both the fabricated and commercial fibres demonstrate supralinear behaviours at doses < 2 mGy, while a value of close to f(D) = 1 (linear) has been obtained for all dosimeters for doses > 4 mGy. In terms of dose sensitivity, all of the fibres show superior TL sensitivity when compared against TLD-100, the 2.3 mol% and 6 mol% Ge-doped FF demonstrating the greatest TL sensitivity at 84 and 87 times that of TLD-100. The TL yields for the novel Ge-doped silica glass render them appealing for use within the present medical imaging dose range, offering linearity at high sensitivity down to less than 2 mGy.