Abstract

External radiotherapy beams have been shown to be able to emit Cherenkov radiation. Traditionally, continuous wavelength (CW) acquisition method is adopted to measure the Cherenkov emission. In this work, a time-gated-acquisition method is introduced to measure the Cherenkov emission generated by external radiation beams from linear accelerator (LINAC) in a tissue mimic phantom. The results by the gating method are compared with the results by traditional continuous wavelength acquisition method. The presented time-gated-acquisition method is shown to be an effective way to enhance the intensity of the Cherenkov emission over the ambient light. The potential application of this acquisition method is discussed.

© 2012 Optical Society of America