Use of a Gafchromic film HD-V2 for the profile measurement of energetic ion beams

The coloration response of a radiochromic film, Gafchromic HD-V2, to ion beams was investigated to apply the film to measuring the transverse intensity distribution of large-area ion beams. HD-V2 films were, therefore, irradiated with proton (10MeV) and several heavy-ion (4.1–27MeV/u) beams in a wide fluence range at the azimuthally-varying-field cyclotron facility in National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, and read with an image scanner to analyze changes in the optical density. It was shown that the available fluence range (106–1011ions/cm2) of HD-V2 depends strongly on ion species, i.e., linear energy transfer (LET). In addition, the reduction of the sensitivity to dose was shown over a wide LET range. The transverse intensity distribution of a large-area ion beam was measured using a response function determined from the measured data. We have demonstrated that the Gafchromic film HD-V2 is useful for measuring the intensity distribution at a low fluence and thus evaluating the characteristics of various ion beams.