A Monte Carlo approach to the track interaction model to explain supralinearity in the thermoluminescence response

Abstract

In this work a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of the Track Interaction Model (TIM) is presented. It is based on the same geometrical assumptions as the analytical model. The main differences introduced in this simulation are that the electrons are not restricted to travel up to the third neighbour and that saturation effects are included. In order to validate the simulation, the thermoluminescence (TL) response of TLD-100 to 5.3 MeV 4He beam produced with an electrostatic accelerator under near-parallel irradiation was obtained. The excellent agreement found between the data (peaks 8 and 9) and the simulation suggests that the contribution of those electrons migrating beyond the third neighbour is very important, and that saturation effects must be taken into account to fully describe the normalised TL response.