Response characterization of EBT-XD radiochromic films in megavoltage photon and electron beams

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the beam quality dependence of the EBT-XD radiochromic films for megavoltage photon and electron beam irradiations by studying their spectral response. Dose, dose rate, and interbatch dependencies were investigated as well.

Methods: EBT-XD and EBT3 radiochromic films were cut into 5 cm² × 5 cm² pieces, placed between solid water phantoms, and irradiated with 6 and 15 MV photon beams, 6 and 10 MV flattening filter free photon beams, and 6 and 20 MeV electron beams at dose levels between 0.5 and 50 Gy. In order to measure the spectral response, the films were illuminated by a deuterium and tungsten-halogen lamp and net absorption was measured in 400-800 nm spectral range using a fiber-coupled optical spectrometer. Film samples were then analyzed using a flatbed scanner in the red, green, and blue channel to obtain the optical density of the films.

Results: The net absorption spectra of the EBT-XD and EBT3 films showed two absorption bands centered at 635 and 585 nm, characteristic of the EBT model. However, for a given dose, the EBT-XD films showed lower net absorbance compared to the EBT3 films. At a given dose level, the net absorption spectra and dose-response curves for EBT-XD films showed only slight variations across various beam qualities. When a calibration curve obtained from a given beam quality is used to measure dose from films irradiated with other beam qualities, the maximum uncertainty in the calculated dose, in ranges 5-40 and 8-50 Gy for red and green channels, respectively, were ~3.1% and ~2.4%.

Conclusions: The response of the EBT-XD films is dose rate independent but batch dependent. No significant beam quality dependence was observed in EBT-XD films in the dose range up to 50 Gy.