Feasibility study of newly developed aluminum magazines for radiophotoluminescence dosimetry

Radiophotoluminescence (RPL) dosimetry using silver-activated alkali-phosphate glass is a useful technique to determine radiation doses on various occasions in medicine, industry, and research. However, RPL dosimetry requires a special read-out system that must be precisely controlled and has a potential error owing to the deterioration of the plastic magazine over long-term use. Therefore, we attempted to reduce this error by introducing robust magazines made of aluminum for reading RPL dosimeters (RPLDs). Twenty rod-shaped RPLDs with the size of φ1.5 mm × 12.0 mm were irradiated with ¹³⁷Cs γ-rays at 50 mGy and measured using three types of magazines: the conventional plastic magazine made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin (CP), new aluminum magazine without coating (NA1), and new aluminum magazine coated with heat-resistant material (NA2). It was found that the RPL doses measured with CP showed systematic declines along with sample positions, possibly because the shape was distorted over long-term use. The RPL doses measured with NA1 increased at both ends of the magazine, which was attributed to the reflection of RPL by the wall of the uncoated aluminum surface. NA2 showed stable RPL doses and consistently functioned also as preheating and annealing magazines for at least four cycles. These findings imply that the RPL dosimetry process can be simplified using NA2 in place of current magazines.