Optical artefact characterization and correction in volumetric scintillation dosimetry

Abstract

The goals of this study were (1) to characterize the optical artefacts affecting measurement accuracy in a volumetric liquid scintillation detector, and (2) to develop methods to correct for these artefacts. The optical artefacts addressed were photon scattering, refraction, camera perspective, vignetting, lens distortion, the lens point spread function, stray radiation, and noise in the camera. These artefacts were evaluated by theoretical and experimental means, and specific correction strategies were developed for each artefact. The effectiveness of the correction methods was evaluated by comparing raw and corrected images of the scintillation light from proton pencil beams against validated Monte Carlo calculations. Blurring due to the lens and refraction at the scintillator tank-air interface were found to have the largest effect on the measured light distribution, and lens aberrations and vignetting were important primarily at the image edges. Photon scatter in the scintillator was not found to be a significant source of artefacts. The correction methods effectively mitigated the artefacts, increasing the average gamma analysis pass rate from 66% to 98% for gamma criteria of 2% dose difference and 2 mm distance to agreement. We conclude that optical artefacts cause clinically meaningful errors in the measured light distribution, and we have demonstrated effective strategies for correcting these optical artefacts.