Study of the role of dopants and annealing temperature in LiF:Mg,Cu,P

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Atom Energy Organization of Iran, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Avenue North Kargar, Tehran, Iran, PO Box 14395-836

2 Nuclear Engineering & Physics Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The LiF:Mg,Cu,P thermoluminesence dosimeter (TLD) is a tissue equivalent material with high sensitivity. This dosimeter is widely utilized in thermolumincence (TL) dosimetry. The TL sensitivity of LiF:Mg,Cu,P are affected by changes in the dopant concentrations. In this study, LiF thermoluminescent materials with Mg, Cu and P dopants were prepared in powder form and their sensitivities were examined to different annealing temperatures within 240-400 °C for 10 min. It was found that thermoluminescence intensity decreases with increasing annealing temperature. Also, the optimum concentration of the Cu and the role of the dopants in the LiF:Mg,Cu,Ag material were investigated. TL intensities have an increasing trend with increasing Cu concentration to 0.05 mol% and then reduce. The results of this study indicate that the each of the three dopants Mg, Cu and P appears to play a role in the presence of each other for the decreasing competitor centers and enhancing thermoluminescent sensitivity.

Keywords