Telescopic measurements of backscattered radiation from secondary collimator jaws to a beam monitor chamber using a pair of slits

A contribution to field-size dependent output by backscattered radiation (BSR) from secondary collimator jaws to a beam monitor chamber of a linear accelerator was measured with a Farmer ionization chamber, positioned 200 cm from the source behind a low-melting-point alloy slab with a 10-cm wide slit. Another slit was positioned against the collimator jaws. Both slits were in the form of a 6.3-mm-diam hole in the middle and were aligned to the source. The use of a pair of slits was intended to eliminate any influence on the ion chamber readings due to field-size dependent charge contribution from the flattening filter and collimator jaw forward scattering. In addition, the setup permits to observe the degree of field-size dependence on BSR. Charge measurements from the Therac-20 18-MV x rays showed a 7.5% field-size dependence on BSR whereas 6- and 18-MV x rays from Varian Clinac-1800 showed <2% dependence on BSR. The telescopic method was found to be easy to use and permitted direct determination of BSR contributions