Optimizing the size of cylindrical sucrose solid state/EPR dosimeters for ionizing radiation

Abstract

This work continuous our previous investigation regards the saturation of dose response of irradiated sucrose Solid State/Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (SS/EPR) dosimeters at doses higher than 10 kGy. Cylindrical sucrose dosimeters with different sizes (diameter and height) have been studied. The main purpose of the current study is by optimizing of the dosimeter size to avoid saturation of the EPR signal at high doses. In view of this it has been researched dosimeters with diameters 2, 3 and 4 mm and heights 5, 10 and 14 mm. From the obtained results have been found that with decreased of the diameter of the dosimeters from 4 to 2 mm the intensity of the EPR signal became linearly depended from the absorbed dose radiation in the dose range 1–50 kGy. In the dosimeters with diameters 3 and 4 mm a weak saturation of the dose response curves at higher doses have been observed. This confirms our previous claim that the saturation is due to simultaneously impact of the deeper penetration of the samples in the electric field in the EPR cavity and of the irradiation with high dose gamma rays. The increased of the height of the dosimeters from 5 to 14 mm aims to increase the sensitivity and to some extent to compensate the loss of sensitivity due to the smaller diameter. Charcoal samples with the same shape have been used for comparison.