Dose rate and SDD dependence of commercially available diode detectors

The dose-rate dependence of commercially available diode detectors was measured under both high instantaneous dose-rate (pulsed) and low dose rate (continuous, Co-60) radiation. The dose-rate dependence was measured in an acrylic miniphantom at a 5-cm depth in a 10 x 10 cm2 collimator setting, by varying source-to-detector distance (SDD) between at least 80 and 200 cm. The ratio of a normalized diode reading to a normalized ion chamber reading (both at SDD=100 cm) was used to determine diode sensitivity ratio for pulsed and continuous radiation at different SDD. The inverse of the diode sensitivity ratio is defined as the SDD correction factor (SDD CF). The diode sensitivity ratio increased with increasing instantaneous dose rate (or decreasing SDD). The ratio of diode sensitivity, normalized to 4000 cGy/s, varied between 0.988 (1490 cGy/s)-1.023 (38,900 cGy/s) for unirradiated n-type Isorad Gold, 0.981 (1460 cGy/s)-1.026 (39,060 cGy/s) for unirradiated QED Red (n type), 0.972 (1490 cGy/s)-1.068 (38,900 cGy/s) for preirradiated Isorad Red (n type), 0.985 (1490 cGy/s)-1.012 (38,990 cGy/s) for n-type Pt-doped Isorad-3 Gold, 0.995 (1450 cGy/s)-1.020 (21,870 cGy/s) for n-type Veridose Green, 0.978 (1450 cGy/s)-1.066 (21,870 cGy/s) for preirradiated Isorad-p Red, 0.994 (1540 cGy/s)-1.028 (17,870 cGy/s) for p-type preirradiated QED, 0.998 (1450 cGy/s)-1.003 (21,870 cGy/s) for the p-type preirradiated Scanditronix EDP20(3G), and 0.998 (1490 cGy/s)-1.015 (38,880 cGy/s) for Scanditronix EDP10(3G) diodes. The p-type diodes do not always show less dose-rate dependence than the n-type diodes. Preirradiation does not always reduce diode dose-rate dependence. A comparison between the SDD dependence measured at the surface of a full scatter phantom and that in a miniphantom was made. Using a direct adjustment of radiation pulse height, we concluded that the SDD dependence of diode sensitivity can be explained by the instantaneous dose-rate dependence if sufficient buildup is provided to eliminate electron contamination. An energy independent empirical formula was proposed to fit the dose-rate dependence of diode sensitivity.