Response of the alanine/ESR dosimeter to radiation from an Ir-192 HDR brachytherapy source

The response of the alanine dosimeter to radiation from an Ir-192 source with respect to the absorbed dose to water, relative to Co-60 radiation, was determined experimentally as well as by Monte Carlo simulations. The experimental and Monte Carlo results for the response agree well within the limits of uncertainty. The relative response decreases with an increasing distance between the measurement volume and the source from approximately 98% at a 1 cm distance to 96% at 5 cm. The present data are more accurate, but agree well with data published by Schaeken et al (2011 Phys. Med. Biol. 56 6625-34). The decrease of the relative response with an increasing distance that had already been observed by these authors is confirmed. In the appendix, the properties of the alanine dosimeter with respect to volume and sensitivity corrections are investigated. The inhomogeneous distribution of the detection probability that was taken into account for the analysis was determined experimentally.