Commercial optical fibre as TLD material

Abstract

This work presents a study of commercial SiO2 optical fibre thermoluminescence (TL) properties as part of the efforts within the Dosimetric Application Project at the Physics Institute of the University of Mexico to develop new radiation detection materials and technologies. The SiO2 commercial optical fibre studied demonstrates useful TL properties and is an excellent candidate for use in TL dosimetry of ionising radiation. The optical fibre's glow curve was observed between 30 and 400 degrees C after exposure to 60Co gamma radiation. One very well-defined glow peak has a maximum at 230 degrees C. The TL response between 100 and 350 degrees C increases monotonically over a wide dose range, from 0.1 Gy to several kGy. It is linear in the range 0.1-3 Gy, which is important for clinical high dose or accident dosimetry. The optical fibre demonstrated high data reproducibility, low residual signal and almost no fading in our study. Moreover, the optical fibre can be re-used several times, after thermal annealing, without any detriment in the dose-response. All these TL characteristics, plus the small size of the 150 microm diameter SiO2 optical fibre, the high flexibility, easy handling and low cost compared with other TL materials, make the commercial optical fibre a very promising TL material for use in research, medicine, industry, reactors, and a variety of other applications.

Review of doped silica glass optical fibre: Their TL properties and potential applications in radiation therapy dosimetry

“…The results show TLD-200 and TLD-900 to have good dose linearity over the UVR range but inferior to TLD-500 which shows high sensitivity to UVR (Noh et al, 2001). While the UV sensitivity of doped silica fibres has previously been noticed in several studies (Espinosa et al, 2006), their TL sensitivity has not been well established. Present study seeks to define the TL sensitivity of Ge-doped SiO 2 optical fibres and represents the first tentative investigation of the possible applicability of the fibres as a possible effective but cheap method of UV measurement.…”

“…Various aspects have been studied (Abdulla et al, 2001;Yusoff et al, 2005;Espinosa et al, 2006;Abdul Rahman et al, 2010a, Abdul Rahman et al, 2010b, Abdul Rahman et al, 2011a, Abdul Rahman et al, 2011b, as for instance, radiation induced attenuation (Huston et al, 2001), radioluminescence (RL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) (Justus et al, 1997;Aznar et al, 2004;Benevides et al, 2007). Useful TL emission has been observed at the radiation levels familiarly applied in high dose radiation-medicine procedures.…”

Optical Fibers and Optical Fiber Sensors Used in Radiation Monitoring

“…The peak of the thermoluminescent signal from the optical fiber appeared at about 230 0 C, both for gamma and beta irradiation. Over the entire temperature range, the optical fiber thermally released optical radiation has two peaks, at 400 nm and 575 nm (Espinosa et al, 2006). This investigation did not indicate a significant fading over 15 months of periodic check.…”

“…P centers: P1, P2, P4, Phosphorus-Oxygen-Hole -POHC (Bisutti et al, 2007;Girard et al, 2006;Girard et al, 2011 ;Paul et al, 2009;Wijnands et al, 2007) ; 3. silica related paramagnetic centers (Non-Bridging Oxygen Hole -NBOHC, PerOxyRadical -POR, SiE', Self-Trapped Hole -STH 1/2) or diamagnetic centres (Oxygen Deficient Centre -ODC; Peroxy Linkage -POL), Girard et al, 2008). In order to distinguish the contribution of various color centers to the irradiation induced absorption in silica optical fibers, complementary investigations, apart from the off-line/online optical transmission measurements, were carried-out: Electron Paramagnetic Resonance -EPR Radiation effects, 2007;Sporea et al, 2010a;Weeks & Sonder, 1963), luminescence (Girard et al, 2005;Girard et al, 2006;Sporea et al, 2010a;Miniscalco et al, 1986), thermoluminescence (Espinosa et al, 2006;Hashim et al, 2008;Mady et al, 2010;Sporea et al, 2010b;Yaakob et al, 2011), confocal microscopy luminescence and Raman analysis Origlio, 2009), time resolved photoluminescence . Based on the results derived from different sources, a decomposition of the optical absorption spectra by using Gaussian bands associated to known color centers can be performed Girard et al, 2011;Sporea et al, 2010a).…”

Technology Assessment and Roadmap for the Emergency Radiation Dose Assessment Program

“…Grains of sand from shoe soles, pants cuffs and pockets, city streets, and plant leaves provide a record of dose from a radiological event (Khan and Delincée, 1995). Fiber-optic strands are excellent radiation dosimeters from 0.1 Gy to several kGy and are associated with computer networks and cable service in many buildings (Espinosa et al, 2004). Optical fibers will probably be available for analysis of a radiological event, since such events are most likely to occur in areas with a highly developed infrastructure, either because of commercial use of the material involved in the event, or because of terrorist targeting.…”