Assessment of Ge-doped optical fibres subjected to x-ray irradiation

Abstract

We have reported the thermoluminescence (TL) response of five different diameters ~120, 241, 362, 483, and 604 μm of 6 mol percent Ge-doped optical fibres. The perfomance of the Ge-doped optical fibre are compared with commercially available TLD-100 chips (LiF:Mg,Ti) in terms of their sensitivity and minimum detectable dose (MDD). The irradiation was performed using X-ray machine (Model ISO 'Narrow Spectrum Series') provided by the Malaysian Nuclear Agency (MNA) at 60 kV X-ray irradiation in low doses ranging from 1-10 mGy. The results show the linear TL dose response from the fibres up to 10 mGy. The smallest diameter of 120 pm optical fibre shows the highest TL dose response compared to above mentioned fibres. The minimum detectable dose (MDD) is 0.82, 0.20, 0.14, 0.08, and 0.13 mGy for Ge-doped with diameters of 120, 241, 362, 483 and 604 μm. All TL materials show the MDD value within the delivered dose 0.01-1.00 mGy subjected to x-ray irradiation. The Ge-doped fibre with diameter of 483 pm was matched the MDD value of TLD-100 chips that equivalent to 0.08 mGy at the same irradiation. We have observed that among the five different diameters of optical fibre, 120 μm shows the best results and its better response than TLD-100 chips (by a factor of 5). The linear response at low dose levels makes this optical fibre most suitable for medical application.