Realization of dysprosium doped lithium magnesium borate glass based TLD subjected to 1–100 Gy photon beam irradiations

Abstract

We explored the feasibility of using Dy2O3 doped lithium magnesium borate (LMB) glass based thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD) for high dose dosimetry in the range 1–100 Gy. Such glass system having composition (in mol%) of (70−z) B2O3–20Li2O–10MgO− zDy2O3 (where 0.05 ≤ z ≤ 0.7 mol%) were prepared via melt-quenching method and subsequently characterized. Radioactive cobalt (Co-60) source was used for irradiations. The optimum dysprosium (Dy3+) content, annealing characteristics, optimum heating rate, sensitivity, thermal fading, reproducibility, TL glow curve and dose response linearity were determined. XRD pattern confirmed the amorphous nature of the synthesized glasses. DTA analysis authenticated a good glass forming ability and thermal stability of the studied glasses. EDX spectra verified the precise elemental traces in the sample ead to determine the effective atomic number (Zeff) of the studied samples. The optimum pre-annealing temperature and time was correspondingly discerned to be 200 °C and 60 min. Furthermore, glass doped with 0.1 mol% of Dy2O3 revealed optimal TLD reading through simple glow curve with minimal fading, high sensitivity and good reproducibility, good linearity with linear regression coefficient of 0.999 and 0.996 in the dose range of 1–10 Gy and 10–100 Gy, respectively. In short, the achieved TLD was established to be a good candidate for accurate radiation detection in photon beam in the 1–100 Gy range.