Pulsed Photon-Stimulated Luminescence (PPSL) as a tool in retrospective dosimetry

The analysis of luminescence of minerals extracted from pottery and bricks is a well-known tool in retrospective dosimetry. In the past, the detection limit of this method has been reported to lie in general in the order of magnitude of about 10 mGy. For most applications in accidental dosimetry, this is more than sufficient. Still there are some applications, such as the determination of the natural dose if the samples are comparatively young and the doses involved are small (e.g. in epidemiological studies), where the possibility of determining much smaller doses is desirable. As the detection limit is often defined by the measurement background, in this study the application of the 'SURRC Pulsed Photostimulated Luminescence (PPSL) Irradiated Food Screening System (SURRC PPSL Irradiated Food Screening System)', where the measurement background is suppressed in a very innovative way, was tested for dosimetric purposes. Therefore, the luminescence parameters were determined for a set of nine samples of modern bricks. It was found that depending on individual samples, it was possible to determine values as small as a few 100 microGy. Herewith a new application for the 'SURRC PPSL Irradiated Food Screening System' presented itself and further applications in dose reconstruction became available. As to the dosimetric properties of the sample material, it was found that although all the samples were from different brickmakers and places throughout Germany, surprisingly the luminescence parameters were similar, so that it was possible to define a generalised measurement sequence. An interpretation is given.