title: On the correct measurement of relative heavy charged particles to gamma thermoluminescent efficiencies.
abstract: In order to better understand the most important experimental aspects for performing correct measurements of relative thermoluminescent (TL) efficiencies, an investigation has been carried out to quantify the effect of using different experimental procedures in the evaluation of 3 MeV proton-to-gamma relative efficiency (etap,gamma) of LiF:Mg,Ti. Variations in batch, presentation, annealing and reader have been studied. When the same protocol is used to measure proton and gamma TL response, efficiency values obtained range from 0.36 to 0.59 for peak 5 and from 0.44 to 0.79 for the total signal. The use of different annealings and different batches leads to 20% and 10% differences in etap,gamma respectively. Large differences (40%) are found between efficiency values measured with TLD-100 chips and those obtained using TLD-100 microcubes. When 'mixed' procedures are used to measure the proton and the gamma response, differences in etap,gamma may increase even more. The main conclusion of this work is to stress the importance of measuring an entire series of experiments in the same laboratory with a carefully defined protocol and using dosemeters from the same batch to obtain heavy charged particle TL response and gamma TL response with identical annealing and readout procedures.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, DF, Mexico. oaa@nuclear.inin.mx
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Villafuerte
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gamboa-deBuen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avilés
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Estrada
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Buenfil
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Trejo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Brandan
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Horowitz
mesh_terms: D005459:Fluorides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D005720:Gamma Rays; D018020:Lithium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D008274:Magnesium / Q000737:chemistry; D011522:Protons; D011854:Radiochemistry; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D018020:Lithium Compounds; D011522:Protons; C027651:lithium fluoride; D014025:Titanium; D008274:Magnesium; D005459:Fluorides