Investigation of Optically Stimulated Luminescence and Signal Fading Properties of Several Materials

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimetry involves the illumination of an irradiated sample on an appropriate material to produce a stimulated emission of light, whose intensity is indicative of the radiation dose. This technique is currently used for personnel dosimetry, environmental dosimetry, and geological dating applications. While a great deal of published research focusing on α-Al2O3:C and natural materials used for geological dating exist, relatively little is known about the OSL properties of thermoluminescent (TL) materials. This paper reports the results of an experiment conducted to characterize the OSL behavior of KBr, CaSO4:Tm, CaSO4:Dy, CaSO4:Dy+P, LiF:Mg,Cu,Na,Si, and LiF:Mg,Cu,Si. The OSL signal responses to seven excitation wavelengths from 625 nm to 455 nm for each material were measured at 12 time periods post-irradiation from 6 h to 120 d. The magnitude and fading characteristics of the OSL response of each material were then analyzed. The data demonstrated that significant OSL responses exist for CaSO4:Tm, LiF:Mg,Cu,Na,Si, and LiF:Mg,Cu,Si. In addition, it was found that the fading rates of OSL signals depend on the excitation wavelength used to elicit the signals and that these fading rates and the corresponding excitation wavelengths correlate well with the material's TL behavior. Thus, the various fading rates with respect to the excitation wavelengths could be used to obtain temporal dose information.