Miniaturized fiber dosimeter of medical radiations on a narrow optical fiber

Abstract

Fiber dosimeters have recently drawn much interest for measuring in vivo and in real time the dose of medical radiations. This paper presents the first miniaturized fiber dosimeter integrated at the end of a narrow 125-micron outer diameter optical fiber. Miniaturization is rendered possible by exploiting the concept of a leaky wave optical antenna for interfacing the scintillators and the fiber, and by taking advantage of the low propagation loss of narrow silica fibers and high detection yield of single-pixel photon counters. Upon irradiation at 6 MV, our fiber probe led to a linear detection response with a signal-to-noise ratio as high as 190 in air. Although implemented with inorganic scintillators and fiber, our fiber probe induces an intensity contrast in the impinging radiation lower than 0.9% over an area of 0.153 mm2. Our nano-optically driven approach opens the route for ultra-compact fiber dosimeters of negligible footprint in the radiotherapeutic processes, even with non-water equivalent fibers and scintillators. A large panel of therapies relying on ionizing radiations (photons or charged particles) may take benefit of this nano-optically-driven technology.