Optically stimulated luminescence of MgB4O7:Ce,Li for gamma and neutron dosimetry

Abstract

The objective of this work was to develop a new optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) material for dosimetry applications that is tissue equivalent and has high sensitivity to ionizing radiation, fast luminescence lifetime, and intrinsic neutron sensitivity. To achieve this combination of properties, we started with a host material with low effective atomic number, MgB4O7 (Zeff=8.2), with an appropriate dopant characterized by short luminescence lifetime (Ce3+). The samples were synthesized using Solution Combustion Synthesis with excess boric acid to achieve the correct crystallographic phase and Li co-doping to enhance its sensitivity. We investigated the thermoluminescence (TL) and OSL properties as a function of annealing temperature, radiation dose, dopant concentration, and time elapsed after irradiation (i.e., signal fading). We also applied a step-annealing procedure to investigate the depth of the trapping centers associated with the OSL signal. The samples obtained are characterized by a dominant TL peak at ~210 °C with intensity comparable to LiF:Mg,Ti. The OSL intensity is ~50% of that from Al2O3:C when using Hoya U-340 filters and shows no saturation up to almost 1 kGy. The OSL signal seems to originate from trapping center with stability > 150 °C, which means that the OSL fading is expected to be small. After the first day, in which fading associated with shallow traps is observed, fading of the total OSL signal was <4% within 6 days. The possibility of enhancing the neutron sensitivity was also demonstrated by synthesizing the material with enriched 10B. Although further development and characterization of the material may be needed, this work demonstrates that this host/dopant combination can be a viable alternative in OSL dosimetry, particularly for 2D dose mapping and neutron dosimetry applications.