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Characteristics of an 18 MV photon beam from a Therac 20 Medical Linear Accelerator
Author(s) -
Patterson Michael S.,
Shragge Peter C.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.594833
Subject(s) - linear particle accelerator , photon , beam (structure) , medical imaging , physics , optics , dosimetry , medical physics , nuclear medicine , nuclear physics , medicine , radiology
The 18 MV photon beam characteristics of a Therac 20 Medical Linear Accelerator manufactured by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, are presented. Tissue phantom ratios (TPR's) and percent depth dose data are given; for a 10×10 cm field, the percent depth dose at a depth of 10 cm is 78.5 (SSD 100 cm). The relative dose factors (RDF'S) are given and are analyzed to elucidate the relative contributions from phantom scatter, collimator scatter, and backscatter from the top of the collimators into the monitor chambers. The effect of field size and depth on the penumbra is described. Crossplots of the beam at a depth of 5 cm indicate that the flattening filter could be improved; there are hot spots of 108% near the corners of 40×40 fields.