A diffusion-free and linear-energy-transfer-independent nanocomposite Fricke gel dosimeter

•We report a new magnetic-resonance-imaging based nanocomposite Fricke gel dosimeter.•No diffusion of the radiation products was observed during nine days after the irradiation.•Gel response faithfully reproduced the carbon beam depth-dose distribution.•The NC-FG dosimeter exhibited a good linearity up to 800 Gy and suppression of LET effects.

We report a new magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) based nanocomposite Fricke gel (NC-FG) dosimeter system, which is free from two main drawbacks of conventional Fricke gel dosimeters, namely, the diffusion of the radiation products and the linear-energy-transfer (LET) dependence of the radiation sensitivity when used for ion beams. The NC-FG dosimeter was prepared by incorporating 1% (w/w) clay nanoparticles into deaerated Fricke gel. We have dosimetrically characterized the NC-FG by using MRI measurements after irradiation with a monoenergetic 290 MeV/nucleon carbon beam. No diffusion of the radiation products was observed during nine days after the irradiation. Moreover, its response faithfully reproduced the depth-dose distribution measured by an ionization chamber, which indicates the absence of the LET dependence. Also, the NC-FG dosimeter exhibited a good linearity up to 800 Gy.