Abstract

The main focus of this study is the evaluation of Cerium doped yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG:Ce) scintillator for its suitability for in vivo dosimetry during radiotherapy. An optical fibre sensor has been developed based on YAG:Ce and is compared with similarly fabricated sensors using Terbium activated Gadolinium Oxysulfide (GOS) and plastic scintillating fibre, BCF-12. The YAG:Ce based optical fibre sensor has a fast decay time (70 ns) and lower afterglow allowing it to accurately discern the individual micro-pulses and recovers quickly between pulses, which is not possible with the GOS based sensor. The photon yield and repeatability of the YAG sensor and is compared with the BCF-12 sensor. The YAG sensor provides a stable output signal, 12 times higher than that observed with the BCF-12 sensor, with a coefficient of variation of 0.7 %, which is lower than the BCF sensor (1.4 %).

© 2018 The Author(s)