A method to reduce the error due to the angular dependencies of Cerenkov-light in water for optical imaging of X-rays from high-energy medical linear accelerators (LINAC)

Determining the absorbed dose distributions in phantoms for X-ray beams of high-energy medical linear accelerators (LINAC) is an important task in the quality control of a system. Although optical imaging of water during irradiation of X-ray beams from a LINAC is a promising method, depth dose profiles show underestimation in the deeper parts of the water, mainly due to the angular dependency of Cerenkov-light produced in water. To solve this problem, the authors change camera angles from 0 degree to 10 degrees and obtain optical images with a high-sensitivity cooled charge coupled device (CCD) camera during X-ray beam irradiation. Furthermore, the authors calculate the Cerenkov-light distributions with different camera angles using Monte Carlo simulation and the obtained depth profiles. Then, these depth profiles are evaluated and compared with those of a planning system. In both measured and simulated distributions, the light intensity increases as the angle increases. The measured depth profile of 10 degrees was nearly identical to the planning system. The percentage differences of depth profile between the measured optical image at the angle of 10 degrees and the planning system was -1.7 % at 100 mm depth, and the average difference was 0.8 %. We conclude that optical imaging with that angle is a promising method for reducing the error due to the angular dependency of Cerenkov-light.