A comparison of chemical and ionization dosimetry for high-energy x-ray and electron beams.

A comparison was made of ferrous sulfate (Fricke) and ionometric methods for determining the absorbed dose in a phantom irradiated with 4-MV x-rays, 25-MV x-rays, or electron beams having various incident energies between 10 and 32 MeV. Both chemical and ionization instruments were calibrated in a 60Co beam at a point in water where the absorbed dose had been previously determined. The chemical yield measurements were corrected for spatial variations in dose within the volume of the solution and used to obtain a value of the absorbed dose for each of the x-ray and electron beams. The ratios of G-values required for these determinations were taken from ICRU reports 14 and 21. Ionization instrument readings from three types of commercial ionization chambers were used to obtain alternate values of the absorbed dose for each radiation. C lambda and CE values used in determining these ionization values of dose were also taken from the above ICRU reports. For 4-MV x-rays the values of absorbed dose obtained from chemical measurements agreed to within 0.5% with values obtained from ionization measurements; for 25-MV x-rays the chemical values were about 1% higher than the ionization values; for the electron beams the chemical values were 1%-4% below the ionization values. These discrepancies suggest an inconsistency among the recommended G, C lambda, and CE values similar to that which has been noted by other workers.