Dosimetry of steady-state gamma rays or pulsed X rays using liquid-core optical waveguides

A liquid-core optical waveguide (OWG) sensor of ionizing radiation can be used for dosimetry over broad absorbed-dose ranges, by means of a relatively simple experimental arrangement. The analyzing visible light from one of several narrow wavelength-band sources at the proximal end of the OWG is propagated efficiently through a tightly coiled waveguide containing a radiochromic solution. This solution constitutes the sensor and attenuates the measuring light according to the simple Beer-Lambert relationship, where increases in the optical absorbance, measured photometrically at the distal end of the OWG, are proportional to the concentrations of the radiation-induced absorbing species (dye molecules), which in turn are proportional to the absorbed dose in the sensor. When the analyzing light is of broad spectral distribution, the absorbance vs dose relationship becomes sublinear. The apparatus may be adapted either to the spectrophotometric measurement of absorbed dose rate or integrated absorbed dose during gamma radiolysis or to dosimetry in the pulse radiolysis or flash photolysis of radiation-stimulated chromophores. The OWG principle works with any transparent liquid or gel sensor held as the core material of a flexible plastic tubing, whose refractive index is less than that of the light-propagating core. (author)