Fluence

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Fluence is a measure of the strength of a radiation field. It is considered the most fundamental unit in dosimetry. It has two equivalent definitions:

1) Imagine that a sphere of small cross sectional area da is impinged upon by dN particles of a certain type. Then, the fluence is:

\Phi = \lim_{{\rm d} a \to 0} \frac{{\rm d} N}{{\rm d} a}.

2) Using the same image of a small sphere as above:

\Phi = \lim_{{\rm d} V \to 0} \frac{\sum {\rm d \ell} }{{\rm d} V},

where dV is the infintesimal volume and \sum {\rm d \ell} is the sum of all the path lengths that transverse the volume.


[edit] References

ICRU 33: Radiation Quantities and Units, April, 1980. (www.icru.org)