Preliminary study of low-pressure ionization chamber for online dose monitoring in FLASH carbon ion radiotherapy

Abstract The FLASH effect of carbon ion therapy has recently attracted significant attention from the scientific community. However, the radiobiological mechanism of the effect and the exact therapeutic conditions are still under investigation. Therefore, the dosimetry accuracy is critical for testing hypotheses about the effect and quantifying FLASH Radiotherapy. In this paper, the FLASH ionization chamber at low-pressure was designed, and its dose rate dependence was verified with the Faraday cup. In addition, the dose response was tested under the air pressure of the ionization chamber of 10 mbar, 80 mbar and 845 mbar, respectively. The results showed that when the pressure was 10 mbar, the dose linearity was verified and calibrated at the dose rate of ∼50 Gy s −1 , and the residuals were less than 2%. In conclusion, the FLASH ionization chamber is a promising instrument for online dose monitoring.