Recombination in liquid filled ionisation chambers with multiple charge carrier species: Theoretical and numerical results

Liquid-filled ionisation chambers (LICs) are used in radiotherapy for dosimetry and quality assurance. Volume recombination can be quite important in LICs for moderate dose rates, causing non-linearities in the dose rate response of these detectors, and needs to be corrected for. This effect is usually described with Greening and Boag models for continuous and pulsed radiation respectively. Such models assume that the charge is carried by two different species, positive and negative ions, each of those species with a given mobility. However, LICs operating in non-ultrapure mode can contain different types of electronegative impurities with different mobilities, thus increasing the number of different charge carriers. If this is the case, Greening and Boag models can be no longer valid and need to be reformulated. In this work we present a theoretical and numerical study of volume recombination in parallel-plate LICs with multiple charge carrier species, extending Boag and Greening models. Results from a recent publication that reported three different mobilities in an isooctane-filled LIC have been used to study the effect of extra carrier species on recombination. We have found that in pulsed beams the inclusion of extra mobilities does not affect volume recombination much, a behaviour that was expected because Boag formula for charge collection efficiency does not depend on the mobilities of the charge carriers if the Debye relationship between mobilities and recombination constant holds. This is not the case in continuous radiation, where the presence of extra charge carrier species significantly affects the amount of volume recombination. •Analytical extension of Greening and Boag theories to multiple charge carriers.•Detailed numerical study of process of volume recombination in LICs.•Recombination in pulsed beams is independent of number and mobilities of carriers.•Multiple charge carriers have a significant effect in continuous beams.