Measurement of Depth Dose Distribution Using Plastic Scintillator

We examined a possibility to use inorganic plastic scintillator, which has the effective atomic number close to that of human soft tissue, for the measurement of dose distributions in a shorter time period. The method was to irradiate a block of plastic scintillator as a phantom, and to measure the distribution of the scintillation light by a wave length analyzer through a thread of plastic optical fiber. By irradiating the diagnostic x-ray, we observed the emission spectrum of the scintillation light from the scintillator. It showed a peak at around 420nm with a full width of 140 nm. The emission spectrum was integrated to determine the total number of photons. The dependences of the amount of photons on the irradiated dose were measured. The results of the experiment show that the amount of emission light is in proportional to the irradiated dose. From this fact, we conclude that the present method can be used for the measurement of the depth dose distribution of the diagnostic x-rays.