Characteristics of 15 MV Photon Beam from a Varian Clinac 1800 Dual Energy Linear Accelerator

Kim, Kye Jun; Lee, Jong Young; Park, Kyung Ran

Abstract

A comprehensive set of dosimetric measurements has been made on the Varian Clinac 1800 15 MV photon beam. Beam quality percentage depth dose, dose in the build up region, output, symmetry and flatness, transmission through lead (Cerrobend), tray attenuation, isodose curves for the open and wedged fields were measured using 3 dimensional water phantom dosimetry system (including film densitometer system) and polystryrence phantoms. These dosimetric measurements sufficiently characterized the beam to permit clinical use. The depth dose characteristics of photon beam is dmax of 3.0 cm and percentage depth dose of 76.8% at 10 cm, 100 cm source-surface distance, field size of 10 x 10 cm2 for 15 MV X-ray beam. The Output factors ranged 0.927 for 4 X 4 cm2 field to 1.087 for 35 X 35 cm2 field. The build-up level of maximum dose was at 3.0 cm and surface dose was approximately 15.5% for a field size 10 x 10 cm2 . The stability of output is within+/-1% and flatness and symmetry are within+/-3%. The half value thickness (HVL) of lead is 13 mm, which corresponds to an attenuation coefficient of 0.053 mm-1. These figures compare favorably with the manufacturer's specifications.