Monte Carlo-based identification of electron and proton edges for calibration of miniaturized tissue equivalent proportional counter

Abstract

Miniaturized tissue equivalent proportional counters (mini-TEPCs) are proper for radiation dosimetry in medical application because the small size of the dosimeter could prevent pile-up effect under the high intensity of therapeutic beam. However, traditional methods of calibrating mini-TEPCs using internal alpha sources are not feasible due to their small size. In this study, we investigated the use of electron and proton edges on Monte Carlo-generated lineal energy spectra as markers for calibrating a 0.9 mm diameter and length mini-TEPC. Three possible markers for each spectrum were calculated and compared using different simulation tools. Our simulations showed that the electron edge markers were more consistent across different simulation tools than the proton edge markers, which showed greater variation due to differences in the microdosimetric spectra. In most cases, the second marker, yδδ, had the smallest uncertainty. Our findings suggest that the lineal energy spectra from mini-TEPCs can be calibrated using Monte Carlo simulations that closely resemble real-world detector and source geometries.