Comparison of calibration coefficients for a vinten ionization chamber simulated using four Monte Carlo methods

Brittany A Broder; Denis E Bergeron; Ryan Fitzgerald; Brian E Zimmerman

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111068

Comparison of calibration coefficients for a vinten ionization chamber simulated using four Monte Carlo methods

Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 Dec:202:111068. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111068. Epub 2023 Oct 17.

Authors

Brittany A Broder¹, Denis E Bergeron², Ryan Fitzgerald², Brian E Zimmerman²

Affiliations

¹ Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8462, USA. Electronic address: brittany.broder@nist.gov.
² Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8462, USA.

PMID: 37866226
PMCID: PMC10842583 (available on 2024-12-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.111068

Abstract

The Vinten 671 ionization chamber (VIC) was modelled using Monte Carlo (MC) programs EGSnrc, Penelope, and TOPAS. Several national measurement institutes have VICs with well-characterized response relationships and have measured calibration coefficients for many radionuclides. Twelve radionuclides with various decay emissions were assessed as well as 14 monoenergetic photon sources and 10 monoenergetic electron sources. Calibration coefficients were calculated based on the energy deposited in the simulated VIC nitrogen gas volume and compared to experimental values from the literature.

Keywords: Ionization chamber; Monte Carlo; Radionuclide calibrator; Secondary standard.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Grants and funding

9999-NIST/ImNIST/Intramural NIST DOC/United States