Optimum aluminum absorber thickness of a small X-ray irradiator for equivalent dose determination

Abstract

A small X-ray irradiator (Varian VF-50J X-ray tube) has some advantages over the conventional radioactive sources for equivalent dose determination, as required for example in the process of luminescence dating of sediments and sherds. One advantage of the X-ray irradiator is that the photon energies below a few keV, which may cause an error in the equivalent dose value, can be eliminated by an aluminum absorber. Data is presented to establish the optimum thickness of the aluminum absorber, found to be about 50 μm.