Abstract
Purpose/Objective: To investigate the feasibility of using glass beads as a novel thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD) in clinical proton radiotherapy. The glass beads have several physical characteristics which suggest their suitability for use as TLDs in this area: a spherical physical shape with a hole in the middle that facilitate their use in 2D and 3D arrangements; chemically inert nature; small size of 1.5 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness; inexpensive and readily available; reusable; and importantly their TL light transparency with negligible self-attenuation which is very important for high LET beams. Proton beams have high LET and therefore can deposit dose nonuniformly across a detector. Readout of TL detectors can be influenced if any opacity is present causing self-attenuation of TL light [1], [2]. The transparency of glass beads to TL light means the beads have the potential to avoid such issues.