Electron contamination from different materials in high energy photon beams

Relative lateral electron surface dose distributions from filters and air in high energy photon beams were determined using the Fermi-Eyges theory of multiple scattering. The model includes transmission and angular scattering in materials and in air. Backscatter from the phantom was also estimated. The variation of surface dose with different parameters such as atomic number, thickness and position of material, field size and photon energy was investigated. The calculated data show good agreement with experiment. For 60Co γ rays, electron filters of medium atomic number give the lowest surface dose; for higher energies a low to medium atomic number material should be used, especially for short material-phantom distances and large field sizes. Contributions to surface dose can be reduced by over 30% by placing a thin foil of high atomic number after a low to medium atomic number filter, thus scattering some electrons from the beam. For 60Co γ rays the air is often the dominant source of contaminating electrons because of high multiple scatter loss at this energy; for higher photon energies the beam flattening filter is the main electron source because of the small emission angle of the electrons and the small scattering power at high energies. (author)