The behavior of several microionization chambers in small intensity modulated radiotherapy fields

Abstract

The aim of this work is to compare different ion chambers available for dose measurements in small fields used in intensity modulated radiotherapy. Some dosimetric aspects, related to these small radiation fields, i.e., lack of electronic lateral equilibrium and steep dose region, must be evaluated, in order to obtain an accurate technique implementation. Furthermore, the size of the sensitive volume of the chambers compared with the mapping of the beams or segments needs consideration. If the size of the chamber is too large for the flatness of the field, the measurement can deviate from the expected absorbed dose at a point. We propose a comparison of various dosimetric values between different microionization chambers with respect to a smaller dosimeter, such as the diamond detector.