Effect of Re-sintering on the morphological and thermoluminescence properties of the ALOX-520 detector

Abstract

Significant research is being conducted on new materials suitable for dosimetry in recent decades with particular focus on their luminescent properties. For instance, a new ceramic detector, aluminum oxide 520 (ALOX-520), was developed at CDTN in 2011 using the sol-gel method. The detectors were doped with C, Fe, Mg, Ca, Cr, Ni, and Mo impurities that generated the necessary dosimetric trap levels to enhance the luminescence effects. Consequently, the resultant material was appropriate for the quantification of ionizing radiation fields by both thermally and optically stimulated luminescence techniques. Originally, ALOX 520 was sintered at 2023 K under a highly reducing atmosphere. At the end of this process, it exhibited important dosimetric properties, as already described in existing literature. The objective of this study is to conduct tests at higher temperatures in vacuum to investigate the effect of thermal treatments under these conditions on the structural and dosimetric properties of the material. Accordingly, ALOX-520 was re-sintered at high temperatures and the changes in its physical, morphological, and dosimetric properties were analyzed. ALOX 520T exhibited better dosimetric properties in terms of homogeneity, reproducibility, linearity, and signal fading. Physically, an increase in the detection threshold value of ALOX-520T could be linked to a decrease in the sensitivity of this detector. The energy dependence, the thermal quenching correction, and kinetic studies for ALOX-520T conducted as part of this work are original. However, the obtained results are consistent with those reported in the literature for α-Al2O3 ceramic detectors. XRD and XRF analyses demonstrated that the thermal treatment did not change the crystalline structure or composition of the material. All the results indicate that an appropriate thermal treatment could improve the dosimetric properties of the ALOX-520 detector without causing significant changes in its crystalline structure.