Selecting The Appropriate Splitter For A Reflective Optical Fiber Dosimeter Probe

Based on an innovative in-vivo optical dosimeter platform developed by scientists at University Health Network, we miniaturized the optical dosimeter in a tiny probe that fits the tip of an optical fiber. The approach consists in a measure of the absorbance change of a sensitive radiochromic material. The increase in absorbance is measured at a single wavelength and the linearly depends on the ionizing radiation dose. For compactness and design reasons, the proposed probe works in a reflective mode. A significant drawback when working with a reflective configuration is that reflections coming from splitter interfaces add to the signal and cause an apparent deviation from linearity. We studied the back-reflections coming from a standard splitter and two custom made bifurcated optical fibers assemblies; 1) 7 fibers and 19 fibers. The 7 fibers connected to a 500 mu m plastic optical fiber had the lowest reflection of 0.016% which was 3 times less than the 19 fibers and 100 times less than the standard splitter. An appropriate choice of the splitter was then imperative otherwise an under evaluation of the relative absorbance of -30% will happen.