Measurements of head-scatter factors with cylindrical build-up caps and columnar miniphantoms

Head-scatter factors, Sh, also referred to as output factors, are measured in-air with an ion chamber and a semiconductor diode fitted with cylindrical build-up caps and columnar miniphantoms fabricated from materials of different atomic number. Sh increases with field size less rapidly when cylindrical build-up caps are constructed from high atomic number materials. This is a consequence of a net scatter of contamination electrons away from the detector. Ion chambers and diodes give identical results when the same type of build-up caps are used. Contamination electrons can be avoided by the use of columnar miniphantoms that have sufficient wall thickness in the radial direction. This radial wall thickness is characterized in this work for 6, 10, and 18 MV x-ray beams. Sh increases with field size less rapidly when columnar miniphantoms are constructed from high atomic number materials. This is due to the decrease in the average energy of photons at large field sizes. It is concluded that to obtain Sh for dosimetry in water, cylindrical build-up caps and columnar miniphantoms should be constructed from material with an atomic number close to that of water.