The usefulness of the alanine dosimeter for proton beams has been demonstrated before. In this paper a literature overview is given of the application of alanine in proton beam dosimetry. The energy dependence of the dosimeter has been investigated and Monte Carlo calculations were performed to investigate the influence of this energy dependence on a Bragg curve as well as to explain some phenomena related to the use of alanine in a solid phantom that were reported in the literature.

Key words: Literature study, Alanine, Dosimetry, Proton, Energy response, Phantom material, Monte Carlo.