Dosimetry and quality specification of high energy photon beams

A number of quality descriptors are defined characterizing the photon attenuation and lepton contamination properties of high energy photon beams for radiation therapy. The dependence of the quality parameters on the design of the clinical beams such as the incident electron energy, target and filter thicknesses, field size and depth in the phantom are analyzed in some detail using analytical and Monte Carlo techniques. It is shown that the mean attenuation coefficient of the beam for a standard field size of 10 cm X 10 cm is related very accurately to the mean stopping power ratio for ionizing chamber dosimetry but also approximately to the equilibrium absorbed dose in the beam for a given photon energy fluence. This means that accurate photon dosimetry can be performed without knowing the acceleration potential, target design or filter thickness for the beam in use. Furthermore, the mechanism behind beam hardening and softening in the phantom are quantitized and suitable quality parameters for the lepton contamination are identified. The latter allow a determination of the lepton contamination for correction of the stopping power ratio near the surface if the contamination is large.