Liquid ionization chambers (LICs) have found applications in many fields in radiation dosimetry, e.g. IMRT, hadron therapy, brachytherapy and computed tomography. The wide range of applications is made possible due to the high sensitivity of LICs, allowing them to be manufactured with small physical dimensions of the chamber body and the effective measurement volume. Furthermore, the commonly used liquids (such as isooctane) have radiation absorption characteristics similar to water, introducing only small fluence perturbation effects as compared to conventional dosimeters. The small dimension of the effective measurement volume is beneficial for the quantification of radiation beams with steep gradients, while retaining a high measurement signal with good statistical properties. However, the interpretation of measurement results is not straight-forward due to several factors influencing their performance. Here, the main problems are recombination effects and particle type- and energy dependence, which may cause severe non-linear effects. The loss of measurement signal in LICs is due to both initial and general recombination. In the present work it is shown that the general recombination effect can be treated with in a similar manner as for air-filled ionization chambers, while there are currently no theories that adequately describe the initial recombination effect for LICs. Furthermore, the relationship between energy dependence and recombination losses in LICs are evaluated at different radiation qualities. Recently developed methods for the correction of general recombination losses in LICs are discussed and their validity evaluated.
In press.