Eur. Phys. J. D (2015) 69: 286
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2015-60208-3

Regular Article

TLD efficiency calculations for heavy ions: an analytical approach^*

¹ GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
² Department of Physics, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy
³ EBG MedAustron GmbH, A, 2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria
⁴ Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, 90133 Palermo, Italy
⁵ Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton NY 11973, US
⁶ German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, 51147 Cologne, Germany

^a e-mail: e.scifoni@gsi.de

Received: 31 March 2015
Received in final form: 21 August 2015
Published online: 18 December 2015

Abstract

The use of thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) in heavy charged particles’ dosimetry is limited by their non-linear dose response curve and by their response dependence on the radiation quality. Thus, in order to use TLDs with particle beams, a model that can reproduce the behavior of these detectors under different conditions is needed. Here a new, simple and completely analytical algorithm for the calculation of the relative TL-efficiency depending on the ion charge Z and energy E is presented. The detector response is evaluated starting from the single ion case, where the computed effectiveness values have been compared with experimental data as well as with predictions from a different method. The main advantage of this approach is that, being fully analytical, it is computationally fast and can be efficiently integrated into treatment planning verification tools. The calculated efficiency values have been then implemented in the treatment planning code TRiP98 and dose calculations on a macroscopic target irradiated with an extended carbon ion field have been performed and verified against experimental data.