Investigation of Ionization Chamber Characteristics for Ultrahigh-dose-rate Scanned Carbon-ion Beams

Background/aim: There are only a few studies on dosimetry with ultrahigh-dose-rate (uHDR) scanned carbon-ion beams. This study investigated the characteristics of four types of ionization chambers for the uHDR beam.

Materials and methods: We employed a newly developed large-plane parallel chamber to monitor a 208.3-MeV/u uHDR scanned carbon-ion beam with a 110-Gy/s average dose rate. The ionization chambers used were the Advanced Markus chamber (AMC), PinPoint 3D chamber (PPC), Farmer chamber (FC), and large-plane parallel chamber (StingRay). The AMC and StingRay surfaces and the PPC and FC geometric centers were aligned to the radiation isocenter using treatment room lasers. Using the voltage range stated in the instruction manuals, we obtained the saturation curves of the chambers. From these curves, we obtained the ion recombination correction factors using the two-voltage and three-voltage linear methods. The dose linearity was evaluated using five measurement points, and the chamber repeatability was verified by conducting repeated measurements for different dose values.

Results: Although all chambers, except for AMC, reached saturation when specified voltages were applied, they exhibited excellent linearity for different dose values. The ion recombination correction factors of the AMC obtained using the aforementioned linear methods were nearly 1. Additionally, all chambers exhibited excellent repeatability. Although the standard deviation of the PPC for the lowest dose was ~1.5%, those of all the other chambers were <1.0%.

Conclusion: All ionization chambers can be used for measuring the relative dose, and absolute dose can be conveniently measured using the AMC with an uHDR carbon-ion scanned beam.