Evaluation of a fluorescent light densitometer for radiochromic film analysis

Radiochromic film dosimetry used in high energy X-ray detection has been evaluated using a VIDAR VXR-12 digitiser for accuracy and results are compared to other densitometers. The VIDAR scanner uses a broad band fluorescent light source which however, produces a negligible ultraviolet reaction effect on the radiochromic film with an estimated equivalent dose of 0.25 cGy darkening per scan to MD-55-2 film. By varying the exposure setting on the scanner, more accurate information can be obtained using radiochromic film within a certain optical density range. Over the range of 0-20 Gy, the scanner can accurately measure dose with a standard deviation of 1.8% calculated between the measured values and a polynomial fit to data. The VIDAR scanner is shown to be a suitable densitometer for radiochromic film. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.