Radiation doses from low energy X-ray beams measured with synthetic diamond compared with calculated values obtained from the PENELOPE Monte Carlo code

The utilization of a probe with synthetic diamond as the sensing material developed to measure radiation doses from mammography X-ray beams is described. The computer code system PENELOPE was used, with a geometry model simulating the experimental conditions, to compute the doses from the mammography X-ray beams to the diamond sensing material. The orientation of the diamond sensor to provide maximum absorption of the incident X-ray beam during exposure was also investigated using the PENELOPE code. The results from the theoretical model and experimental measurements are compared.