Characterization of the Medscint HYPERSCINT scintillation dosimetry research platform with orthovoltage photon beams and a novel quasi monoenergetic beam

Objective. This work aimed to evaluate the dosimetric characteristics of the new HyperScint^TM Research Platform 200 system (HS-RP200), with orthovoltage beams and a novel kilovoltage converging beam, converging radiotherapy and radiosurgery (CRnR) beam. Approach. Several dosimetric properties of the HS-RP200 detector with several orthovoltage beams were studied in air. Relative dosimetry of the HS-RP200 detector was also studied for use on the converging x-ray beam. Energy correction factors were compared between measurement, Monte Carlo, and analytical methods. Main results. The signal-to-noise ratio for the detector increased as the frame exposure time increased, and repeated measurements had less uncertainty when measurements were performed without stem-effect removal (WOSER). The short-term stability study of the detector’s signal showed an acceptable variance of its readings to within 1% during 1 h measurements. The detector exhibited angular independence within the measurement uncertainty of 1%. The detector exhibited excellent dose linearity response with the orthovoltage beams. During an 80 d period, repeated measurements determined that the detector possesses long-term stability within a root mean square (rms) of 2.3% and 0.6% when measurements were performed with stem effect removal and WOSER, respectively. Calculated energy correction factors implied significant fluctuations of the HS-RP200 detector with the beam quality of orthovoltage beams, ranging from 3% to 66%, depending on the divergence of the effective energy of the beam from reference quality. Monte Carlo–simulated energy correction factors agreed with measurements with a maximum difference of 5.4% when measurements were performed WOSER. Lastly, the HS-RP200 detector system exhibited good relative dosimetric characteristics with the CRnR beam. A maximum rms value of 0.019 was calculated for the normalized profiles when measurements from the HS-RP200 detector were compared to measurements from film. Significance. The HS-RP200 detector could be used as an alternative to other detectors with orthovoltage beams, including the CRnR beam.