Construction and Development of a Chemical Dosimeter Based on the Radiochromic Solid Polymer and Evaluation of it’s Response to High Energy Photons Used in Radiotherapy

Recent advances in radiation therapy have made obvious the need for dosimeters that can measure three-dimensional (3-D) dose distributions. Currently, radiosensitive gel dosimeters have provided 3-D dose measurements using the MRI technique. However, this method has some limitations. Recently, a novel transparent polymer dosimeter, PRESAGE, has been introduced which exhibits a radiochromic response when exposed to ionizing radiation. This dosimetry technique has some advantages compared with other gel dosimeters. In this study, the dose response, linearity, sensitivity, and stability of this type of dosimeter were investigated for different levels of the activator, and leuco dye concentration. In this regard, the PRESAGE dosimeters were made with different formulations and were irradiated by gamma-rays of Cobalt-60 in the dose range of 0-50 Gy. Then, the optical absorption changes of the dosimeters were measured by a spectrophotometer over a period of 14 days after the irradiation. The results indicated that increasing the activator concentration leads to the increase of the sensitivity, but decreases the stability of the dosimeter response. Furthermore, it was noted that the dosimeter shows a linear response to the radiation dose with a high level of correlation (R2>0.99).