Transfer of the UK absorbed dose primary standard for photon beams from the research linac to the clinical linac at NPL

Abstract

An Elekta Synergy clinical linac facility is now in routine use at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). For the purpose of therapy-level dosimetry, this has replaced the NPL research linac, which is over 40 years old, and in which the NPL absorbed dose primary standard for high-energy photons was established. This standard has been disseminated to clinical beams by interpolation of the calibration factor as a function of tissue phantom ratio TPR20/10. In this work the absorbed dose standard has been commissioned in all the beams produced by the Elekta Synergy linac. Reference standard ionization chambers have been calibrated in terms of absorbed dose to graphite and this calibration has been converted to one in terms of absorbed dose to water. The results have been combined with the calibration in 60Co γ-rays to obtain measured values for the quality-dependent correction, kQ, for these reference standard chambers used in the Elekta beams. The resulting data are consistent with the interpolated kQ to within 0.4%, which is less than the combined standard uncertainty of kQ, 0.56%.