Ionization chamber radial response deconvolution in megavoltage photon beam

The aim of this paper is to study a radial response model as a method, to correct output factor results gathered with ionization chambers of different size and shape in cone collimated RT fields. An enhanced version of a non-parametric super-resolution deconvolution method able to model a radial response function of a small cylinder symmetric ionization chamber is described and demonstrated. The radial response of four ionization chambers with different geometry and radius are estimated using 6 MV photon beam in water at the isocentre plane. Finally the validity of the estimates is tested by applying the response functions to the output factor measurements of 4-20 mm conical collimators. The enhanced method is demonstrated by obtaining the response function characteristics with a spatial uncertainty smaller than 0.1 mm when the distance from chamber axis is larger than 0.5 mm. In all studied ionization chambers, a significant local response maximum is found close to the air cavity boundary. The agreement between the output factor results of different chambers is promising, the largest difference (max-min) in output factor is 4% obtained for the smallest 4 mm cone size.