Increasing the sensitivity of the dosimetry system for high energy x-rays, using Gafchromic EBT film and a flat-bed scanner with sharp cut filters

Abstract

To increase the sensitivity of the dosimetry system for high energy x-rays, using Gafchromic EBT film (International Specialty Products) and a flat-bed scanner with transparency unit (ES-2200 or Expression 1680, Epson, Inc.), the optimal sharp cut (SC) filters like optical filters to be added to the scanner were investigated. Gafchromic EBT film (EBT) has the absorption spectrum with a maximum absorption band centered at 636 nm. Consequently the response of EBT will be enhanced by measurement with red light and can be very significantly increased by using a red filter while making scanner measurements. In our research, employed SC filters were SC filter 54, 56, 58, 60 and 62 (product made from Fuji film). SC filters are defined as filters that cut off as much as possible of the wavelength light shorter than a specific wavelength, while transmitting as much of longer wavelength light as possible, within a wavelength range of 350 nm to 800 nm. Generally, it is ideal to use a narrow band pass filter. However we didn’t employ the filter because the transmissivity of the filter of film type is low or the thickness of glass type filter is large, so it is unsuitable for a flat-bed scanner. Film pieces of EBT were exposed to the following doses: 0.3 – 10.0 Gy with the 6 MV x-rays from a linear accelerator. The irradiated film pieces to which the SC filter was added were scanned and the scan data of red channel was converted into optical density. Furthermore the optical density was divided by the absorbed dose and the value was estimated as sensitivity. EBT with SC filter 62 with 50% of transmissivity at 620 nm was about 1.48 times more sensitive on the average than without a SC filter.