Relative TL and OSL efficiency to protons of various dosimetric materials

Abstract

Thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) are the well-known phenomena used for passive methods of dose measurements. TL and OSL detectors are frequently used in the dosimetry of cosmic radiation in space and of particle radiotherapy beams. However, the relative TL/OSL efficiency, which is defined as a ratio of the emitted light intensity per unit dose for a given radiation type, to the same quantity for the reference gamma radiation is not constant and depends on radiation type and energy. In the present work several types of TL and OSL dosimetric materials, including lithium fluoride (LiF), aluminium oxide, beryllium oxide and lithium aluminate, were tested with protons. The measurements were realised exploiting the 60-MeV proton beam of the AIC-144 cyclotron in the Proton Eye Radiotherapy Facility at Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN). The influence of proton energy on the relative efficiency and other TL/OSL characteristics of the studied detector types was presented.