Fricke xylenol gel characterization using a photoacustic technique

Fricke chemical dosimetry measurements of the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation depend on the quality and characteristics of the system that reads each dosimeter. The final accuracy is significantly dependent on the technique used for measuring the chemical concentration changes in the dosimeters. We have used a photoacoustic technique to detect the Fricke xylenol gel (FXG) optical absorbance. The FXG, a derivation of the aqueous Fricke dosimeter, is made more sensitive and stable with addition of gelatin (300 Bloom) and xylenol orange. The light intensity transmitted through an FXG sample before and after irradiation was measured with an acoustic detector. The incremental optical absorbance is directly proportional to the ionizing radiation absorbed dose. We present the optical absorbance measurements as a function of absorbed dose and of post-irradiation time. We apply our photoacoustic technique to determine absorbed dose profiles. The results show that the photoacoustic technique applied to FXG provides a new dosimetric system, as good as those already established using spectrophotometric techniques.