Ultracompact x-ray dosimeter based on scintillators coupled to a nano-optical antenna.

We show that nano-optical antennas are capable of controlling the luminescence induced by the absorption of x rays into matter. The x-ray-excited luminescence from a tiny scintillation cluster coupled to a horn nano-optical antenna is highly directed and determined by the antenna's geometrical parameters. Directionality is sufficiently high to efficiently outcouple the x-ray-excited luminescence to a narrow single-mode optical fiber, thus enabling ultracompact fiber-integrated x-ray sensors. Our nano-optically driven approach offers the possibility of x-ray profiling and dosimetry in ultra-confined environments, opening up new avenues in the fields of x-ray imaging, as well as medical and industrial endoscopy. With this study, to the best of our knowledge, nano-optical antennas make a first key contribution to the development of x-ray sensing protocols and architectures.

Cerenkov free micro-dosimetry in small-field radiation therapy technique.

Objective. Optical fiber-based scintillating dosimetry is a recent promising technique owing to the miniature size dosimeter and quality measurement in modern radiation therapy treatment. Despite several advantages, the major issue of using scintillating dosimeters is the Cerenkov effect and predominantly requires extra measurement corrections. Therefore, this work highlighted a novel micro-dosimetry technique to ensure Cerenkov-free measurement in radiation therapy treatment protocol by investigating several dosimetric characteristics.Approach.A micro-dosimetry technique was proposed with the performance evaluation of a novel infrared inorganic scintillator detector (IR-ISD). The detector essentially consists of a micro-scintillating head based on IR-emitting micro-clusters with a sensitive volume of 1.5 × 10-6mm3. The proposed system was evaluated under the 6 MV LINAC beam used in patient treatment. Overall measurements were performed using IBATMwater tank phantoms by following TRS-398 protocol for radiotherapy. Cerenkov measurements were performed for different small fields from 0.5 × 0.5 cm2to 10 × 10 cm2under LINAC. In addition, several dosimetric parameters such as percentage depth dose (PDD), high lateral resolution beam profiling, dose linearity, dose rate linearity, repeatability, reproducibility, and field output factor were investigated to realize the performance of the novel detector.Main results. This study highlighted a complete removal of the Cerenkov effect using a point-like miniature detector, especially for small field radiation therapy treatment. Measurements demonstrated that IR-ISD has acceptable behavior with dose rate variability (maximum standard deviation ∼0.18%) for the dose rate of 20-1000 cGy s-1. An entire linear response (R2= 1) was obtained for the dose delivered within the range of 4-1000 cGy, using a selected field size of 1 × 1 cm2. Perfect repeatability (max 0.06% variation from average) with day-to-day reproducibility (0.10% average variation) was observed. PDD profiles obtained in the water tank present almost identical behavior to the reference dosimeter with a build-up maximum depth dose at 1.5 cm. The small field of 0.5 × 0.5 cm2profiles have been characterized with a high lateral resolution of 100µm.Significance. Unlike recent plastic scintillation detector systems, the proposed micro-dosimetry system in this study requires no Cerenkov corrections and showed efficient performance for several dosimetric parameters. Therefore, it is expected that considering the detector correction factors, the IR-ISD system can be a suitable dose measurement tool, such as in small-field dose measurements, high and low gradient dose verification, and, by extension, in microbeam radiation and FLASH radiation therapy.

Dosimetric characterization of a small-scale (Zn,Cd)S:Ag inorganic scintillating detector to be used in radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: In modern radiotherapy techniques, to ensure an accurate beam modeling process, dosimeters with high accuracy and spatial resolution are required. Therefore, this work aims to propose a simple, robust, and a small-scale fiber-integrated X-ray inorganic detector and investigate the dosimetric characteristics used in radiotherapy. METHODS: The detector is based on red-emitting silver-activated zinc-cadmium sulfide (Zn,Cd)S:Ag nanoclusters and the proposed system has been tested under 6 MV photons with standard dose rate used in the patient treatment protocol. The article presents the performances of the detector in terms of dose linearity, repeatability, reproducibility, percentage depth dose distribution, and field output factor. A comparative study is shown using a microdiamond dosimeter and considering data from recent literature. RESULTS: We accurately measured a small field beam profile of 0.5 × 0.5 cm2 at a spatial resolution of 100 µm using a LINAC system. The dose linearity at 400 MU/min has shown less than 0.53% and 1.10% deviations from perfect linearity for the regular and smallest field. Percentage depth dose measurement agrees with microdiamond measurements within 1.30% and 2.94%, respectively for regular to small field beams. Besides, the stem effect analysis shows a negligible contribution in the measurements for fields smaller than 3x3 cm2. This study highlights the drastic decrease of the convolution effect using a point-like detector, especially in small dimension beam characterization. Field output factor has shown a good agreement while comparing it with the microdiamond dosimeter. CONCLUSION: All the results presented here anticipated that the developed detector can accurately measure delivered dose to the region of interest, claim accurate depth dose distribution hence it can be a suitable candidate for beam characterization and quality assurance of LINAC system.

High resolution small-scale inorganic scintillator detector: HDR brachytherapy application.

PURPOSE: Brachytherapy (BT) deals with high gradient internal dose irradiation made up of a complex system where the source is placed nearby the tumor to destroy cancerous cells. A primary concern of clinical safety in BT is quality assurance to ensure the best matches between the delivered and prescribed doses targeting small volume tumors and sparing surrounding healthy tissues. Hence, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of a point size inorganic scintillator detector (ISD) in terms of high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) treatment. METHODS: A prototype of the dose verification system has been developed based on scintillating dosimetry to measure a high dose rate while using an 192 Ir BT source. The associated dose rate is measured in photons/s employing a highly sensitive photon counter (design data: 20 photons/s). Dose measurement was performed as a function of source-to-detector distance according to TG43U1 recommendations. Overall measurements were carried out inside water phantoms keeping the ISD along the BT needle; a minimum of 0.1 cm distance was maintained between each measurement point. The planned dwell times were measured accurately from the difference of two adjacent times of transit. The ISD system performances were also evaluated in terms of dose linearity, energy dependency, scintillation stability, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and signal-to-background ratio (SBR). Finally, a comparison was presented between the ISD measurements and results obtained from TG43 reference dataset. RESULTS: The detection efficiency of the ISD was verified by measuring the planned dwell times at different dwell positions. Measurements demonstrated that the ISD has a perfectly linear behavior with dose rate (R2  = 1) and shows high SNR (>35) and SBR (>36) values even at the lowest dose rate investigated at around 10 cm from the source. Standard deviation (1σ) remains within 0.03% of signal magnitude, and less than 0.01% STEM signal was monitored at 0.1 cm source-to-detector distance. Stability of 0.54% is achieved, and afterglow stays less than 1% of the total signal in all the irradiations. Excellent symmetrical behavior of the dose rate regarding source position was observed at different radiation planes. Finally, a comparison with TG-43 reference dataset shows that corrected measurements agreed with simulation data within 1.2% and 1.3%, and valid for the source-to-detector distance greater than 0.25 cm. CONCLUSION: The proposed ISD in this study anticipated that the system could be promoted to validate with further clinical investigations. It allows an appropriate dose verification with dwell time estimation during source tracking and suitable dose measurement with a high spatial resolution both nearby (high dose gradient) and far (low dose gradient) from the source position.

High spatial resolution inorganic scintillator detector for high-energy X-ray beam at small field irradiation.

PURPOSE: Small field dosimetry for radiotherapy is one of the major challenges due to the size of most dosimeters, for example, sufficient spatial resolution, accurate dose distribution and energy dependency of the detector. In this context, the purpose of this research is to develop a small size scintillating detector targeting small field dosimetry and compare its performance with other commercial detectors. METHOD: An inorganic scintillator detector (ISD) of about 200 µm outer diameter was developed and tested through different small field dosimetric characterizations under high-energy photons (6 and 15 MV) delivered by an Elekta Linear Accelerator (LINAC). Percentage depth dose (PDD) and beam profile measurements were compared using dosimeters from PTW namely, microdiamond and PinPoint three-dimensional (PP3D) detector. A background fiber method has been considered to quantitate and eliminate the minimal Cerenkov effect from the total optical signal magnitude. Measurements were performed inside a water phantom under IAEA Technical Reports Series recommendations (IAEA TRS 381 and TRS 483). RESULTS: Small fields ranging from 3 × 3 cm2 , down to 0.5 × 0.5 cm2 were sequentially measured using the ISD and commercial dosimeters, and a good agreement was obtained among all measurements. The result also shows that, scintillating detector has good repeatability and reproducibility of the output signal with maximum deviation of 0.26% and 0.5% respectively. The Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) was measured 0.55 cm for the smallest available square size field of 0.5 × 0.5 cm2 , where the discrepancy of 0.05 cm is due to the scattering effects inside the water and convolution effect between field and detector geometries. Percentage depth dose factor dependence variation with water depth exhibits nearly the same behavior for all tested detectors. The ISD allows to perform dose measurements at a very high accuracy from low (50 cGy/min) to high dose rates (800 cGy/min) and was found to be independent of dose rate variation. The detection system also showed an excellent linearity with dose; hence, calibration was easily achieved. CONCLUSIONS: The developed detector can be used to accurately measure the delivered dose at small fields during the treatment of small volume tumors. The author's measurement shows that despite using a nonwater-equivalent detector, the detector can be a powerful candidate for beam characterization and quality assurance in, for example, radiosurgery, Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), and brachytherapy. Our detector can provide real-time dose measurement and good spatial resolution with immediate readout, simplicity, flexibility, and robustness.

Spatial resolution of confocal XRF technique using capillary optics.

XRF (X-ray fluorescence) is a powerful technique for elemental analysis with a high sensitivity. The resolution is presently limited by the size of the primary excitation X-ray beam. A test-bed for confocal-type XRF has been developed to estimate the ultimate lateral resolution which could be reached in chemical mapping using this technique. A polycapillary lens is used to tightly focus the primary X-ray beam of a low power rhodium X-ray source, while the fluorescence signal is collected by a SDD detector through a cylindrical monocapillary. This system was used to characterize the geometry of the fluorescent zone. Capillary radii ranging from 50 µm down to 5 µm were used to investigate the fluorescence signal maximum level This study allows to estimate the ultimate resolution which could be reached in-lab or on a synchrotron beamline. A new tool combining local XRF and scanning probe microscopy is finally proposed.

Combining scanning probe microscopy and x-ray spectroscopy.

A new versatile tool, combining Shear Force Microscopy and X-Ray Spectroscopy was designed and constructed to obtain simultaneously surface topography and chemical mapping. Using a sharp optical fiber as microscope probe, it is possible to collect locally the visible luminescence of the sample. Results of tests on ZnO and on ZnWO4 thin layers are in perfect agreement with that obtained with other conventional techniques. Twin images obtained by simultaneous acquisition in near field of surface topography and of local visible light emitted by the sample under X-Ray irradiation in synchrotron environment are shown. Replacing the optical fibre by an X-ray capillary, it is possible to collect local X-ray fluorescence of the sample. Preliminary results on Co-Ti sample analysis are presented.