Absorbed dose determination in kilovoltage X-ray synchrotron radiation using alanine dosimeters

Alanine dosimeters from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK were irradiated using kilovoltage synchrotron radiation at the imaging and medical beam line (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron. A 20 × 20 mm² area was irradiated by scanning the phantom containing the alanine through the 1 mm × 20 mm beam at a constant velocity. The polychromatic beam had an average energy of 95 keV and nominal absorbed dose to water rate of 250 Gy/s. The absorbed dose to water in the solid water phantom was first determined using a PTW Model 31014 PinPoint ionization chamber traceable to a graphite calorimeter. The alanine was read out at NPL using correction factors determined for ⁶⁰Co, traceable to NPL standards, and a published energy correction was applied to correct for the effect of the synchrotron beam quality. The ratio of the doses determined by alanine at NPL and those determined at the synchrotron was 0.975 (standard uncertainty 0.042) when alanine energy correction factors published by Waldeland et al. (Waldeland E, Hole E O, Sagstuen E and Malinen E, Med. Phys. 2010, 37, 3569) were used, and 0.996 (standard uncertainty 0.031) when factors by Anton et al. (Anton M, Büermann L., Phys Med Biol. 2015 60 6113-29) were used. The results provide additional verification of the IMBL dosimetry.