Diamond detector versus silicon diode and ion chamber in photon beams of different energy and field size

The aim of this work was to test the suitability of a PTW diamond detector for nonreference condition dosimetry in photon beams of different energy (6 and 25 MV) and field size (from 2.6 cm x 2.6 cm to 10 cm x 10 cm). Diamond behavior was compared to that of a Scanditronix p-type silicon diode and a Scanditronix RK ionization chamber. Measurements included output factors (OF), percentage depth doses (PDD) and dose profiles. OFs measured with diamond detector agreed within 1% with those measured with diode and RK chamber. Only at 25 MV, for the smallest field size, RK chamber underestimated OFs due to averaging effects in a pointed shaped beam profile. Agreement was found between PDDs measured with diamond detector and RK chamber for both 6 MV and 25 MV photons and down to 5 cm x 5 cm field size. For the 2.6 cm x 2.6 cm field size, at 25 MV, RK chamber underestimated doses at shallow depth and the difference progressively went to zero in the distal region. PDD curves measured with silicon diode and diamond detector agreed well for the 25 MV beam at all the field sizes. Conversely, the nontissue equivalence of silicon led, for the 6 MV beam, to a slight overestimation of the diode doses in the distal region, at all the field sizes. Penumbra and field width measurements gave values in agreement for all the detectors but with a systematic overestimate by RK measurements. The results obtained confirm that ion chamber is not a suitable detector when high spatial resolution is required. On the other hand, the small differences in the studied parameters, between diamond and silicon systems, do not lead to a significant advantage in the use of diamond detector for routine clinical dosimetry. (C) 2003 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.