Fading Studies of Natural Salt for Dosimetry
Applications
Ramesh Chandra Tiwari and Kham Suan Pau
Department of Physics
Mizoram University: Tanhril Campus
Aizawl, India
ramesh_mzu@rediffmail.com
Abstract—Fading at room temperature is one of the most
important properties of TL material. The purpose of the present
studies is to find out the suitability of natural salt extracted from
rivers of Mizoram for dosimetry applications. TL analysis of the
gamma irradiated samples stored at room temperature was done
within 2 hours, after 48 hours and 96 hours of irradiation.
Experimental glow curves were fitted by using Kitis et al general
order expression and the fitting parameters were obtained by
authors using GCD method. TL analysis of samples showed good
dosimetry peaks at about 205 C. Our studies indicate that the
natural salt may be considered for dosimetry applications within
48 hours after gamma irradiation.
Keywords-thermoluminescence; fading; natural salt; dosimetry;
gamma irradiation
I.
INTRODUCTION
Thermoluminescence (TL) is a phenomenon of an insulator
or semiconductor (sample) which can be observed when the
solid is thermally stimulated [1]. A plot of TL intensity against
temperature is called a TL glow curve. A TL glow curve is
considered as an array of connected points where the value at
any point is a consequence of TL law [2]. A TL glow curve
may consist of one or more TL glow peaks. A TL glow curve
which consist of more than one TL glow peaks cannot be
analyzed with simple technique. Many methods of analysis
such as Initial rise method, peak shape method, whole glow
curve method and curve fitting method had been developed to
interpret the physical phenomena and even software were
developed to identify the main TL glow peaks and presence of
satellite peaks. Computerized glow curve deconvulution is one
of such software which requires only few parameters to
reproduce/fit the experimental glow curve. This process is
useful when overlapping glow peaks are present.
In this paper, Kitis et al general order equation of the form
I(IM, E, TM, T) is used to fit and analyze the experimental TL
glow curve. This equation uses T as an adjustable parameter,
whereas IM and TM are available from the experimental data.
The authors used computer spread sheet and obtained kinetic
parameters. The authors also used the different parameters
obtained from their analysis to study fading of their TL
materials. The TL material is natural salt obtained from salty
water from the rivers in Mizoram. Fading is studied at 48 hour
and 96 hours with respect to TL reading obtained immediately
(less than 2 hours) after irradiation and the results were
reported in this paper. The main peak temperature of 180 C –
250 C is considered to be suitable for dosimetry purposes
because this temperature is high enough, activation energy E>
kT for trap emptying and low enough for black body
interference [3], which is also achieved in our experiment at the
4th peak.
This paper also includes the whole glow curve method to
calculate n0, the number of trapped electrons at time t = 0. This
value is estimated from the area under the glow curve , by
summing the TL intensities multiplied by the temperature
interval delta T, between TL measurements and by dividing
with the heating rate beta. The delta T in the linear region of
the linear profile is 4.8 C/s and heating rate used is 5 C/s.
In this work we demonstrate the simulation of relevant
processes related to TL phenomena of irradiated natural salt
using generated parameters obtained from the GCD analysis.
The findings were compared and discussed with the
experimental results.
II.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The natural salt Dap Chi (local name) was extracted by the
process of evaporation of salty water, available in the state of
Mizoram. The natural salt was crushed to fined powder and
given thermal treatment at 110 C for 90 minutes in even before
irradiation. Samples of 20 + 2 mg were used for each
measurement. Samples were irradiated from 60Co gamma
source at a low dose of 0.5 Gy from a cobalt Th780C machine.
The dose rate of the cobalt source at the time of irradiation was
0.0253 Gy/s. TL measurements of the irradiated samples were
carried out within 2 hours, 48 hours and 96 hours in a
commercial PC based TL Reader, model TL1009I
photomultiplier tube Hamamatsu/ET make type no 6095
(Nucleonix System Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad). A second TL
measurement gives background radiation with black body
radiation. The TL glow curves presented are after background
subtraction. The heating rate used was 5 C/s with final
temperature set to 400 C.
as
The number of trapped electron at time t = 0 can be written
978-1-61284-0911-1/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
Tf
(1)
T0
where ΔT the temperature interval
measurements, and β is the heating rate.
between
TL
The TL intensity may be written [9] as
⎛ b⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎝ b−1⎠
I(T) = Imb
⎛ E ⎞⎛T −Tm ⎞
exp⎜− ⎟⎜
⎟
⎝ kT ⎠⎝ Tm ⎠
III.
⎛ b⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎝ b−1⎠
⎧⎪
(b−1)2kTm ⎫⎪
⎛ 2kT ⎞⎛T ⎞ ⎛ E ⎞⎛T −Tm ⎞
×⎨( b−1) ⎜1− ⎟⎜ 2 ⎟exp⎜ ⎟⎜
⎬
⎟+1+
E ⎪⎭
⎝ E ⎠⎝Tm ⎠ ⎝ kT ⎠⎝ Tm ⎠
⎪⎩
2
linear combination of two or more TL points at the same
temperature and belonging to smaller TL curves, and b) the
fitting is started from higher temperature and move towards the
lower temperature side. Therefore, once the peak 4 is fitted, the
next lower temperature peak can be fitted by similar process.
The point of divergence of the fitted curve from the
experimental curve can be used as a guide. And finally the
combination of fitted peaks which best fit the experimental
curve is chosen. By this process the whole experimental TL
glow curve can be fitted with four TL peaks as shown in figure
2 and fitting parameters in table 1.
(2)
The TL glow curves of gamma irradiated natural salt at 2
hours, 48 hours and 96 hours are shown in Fig. 1. The GCD
spread sheet analysis of 2 hours TL curve by using equation (2)
showed four TL glow peaks as shown in Fig. 2.
where IM is the maximum intensity of the TL peak and TM
is its temperature.
⎧
⎛ β E ⎞ ⎪⎪
1
s = ⎜ 2 ⎟⎨
⎝ kTm ⎠ ⎪1 + ( b − 1) 2kTm
⎩⎪
E
⎫
⎪⎪
⎛ E ⎞
⎬ exp ⎜
⎟
⎝ kTm ⎠
⎪
⎭⎪
exp erimental
FOM =
∑y
300
250
2
200
200
150
100
48h
96h
150
4
1
100
3
50
(3)
0
0
50
100
350
α200+ 250β 300= χ.
150
400
Temperature (C)
The reliability of the fitting is tested with the help of
Figure of Merit (FOM) [9], which is defined as
p
Experimental
2h
250
50
Chen’s expression for general order has variable T which
can be obtained from the experimental data.
∑y
205 ± 28C
300
T L In t e n s it y
One may also deduced the frequency factor s as
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
TL Intensity
n0 = 1/ β ∫ I (T ) dT = 1/ β ∑ I (T ).ΔT
− y fit
(4)
fit
p
where yexperimental and yfit represent the experimental TL
intensity data and the values of the fitting function respectively.
The procedure starts with selecting a prominent peak or a
peak which seems to be isolated. The temperature and intensity
of such peak and as well as some assumed values of E and b
were substituted to Kitis expression (equation 2). The E and b
values are usually started from 1.0 eV and 1 respectively and
depending upon the fitting between experimental and fitted
curves, E and b were adjusted to get the best fit. The smaller is
the value of E the bigger is the curve. The b value is selected
between 1 and 2. the higher temperature peak (peak 4) has
TM=205 C and IM=251. the E and b value which give the best
fit on the second half of this peak is found to 1.1 eV and 1.5
respectively. With this value of E, s is found to be 5.78x1012.
Once the most prominent peak is fitted, it is possible to fit
the remaining portion of the glow curve by assuming that; a)
any point on a TL glow curve at a given temperature may be a
(1)
0
0
50
(1)
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Temperature (C)
Figure 1. Experimental glow curves at less than 2 hours, 48
hours and 96 hours.
Figure 2. Glow Curve Deconvolution of natural salt irradiated
to 0.5 Gy and measured within 2 hours.
The fitting parameters obtained from the GCD for various
peaks are given in table 1.
TABLE 1. Fitting parameters obtained using GCD from the
experimental TL glow curve from Fig. 2.
Time
P1
80
TM
(C)
89
P2
98
107
0.65
P3
30
155
0.7
P4
251
205
1.1
Peak
IM
E
(eV)
0.8
2 hrs
s(s-1)
b
2.65 x
1012
5.93 x
109
2.44 x
109
5.78 x
1012
1.4
1.3
1.3
1.5
τ
(day
s)
1.97 x
101
2.36 x
101
4.14 x
102
1.26 x
106
Several studies on fading of natural salt and their
application as retrospective dosimeter had been done by many
researchers [4,5,6,7].
T L In t e n s it y
60
40
48h
20
96h
35
2h
48h
30
25
20
50
200
100
150
Theoretical
200
Temperature (C)
300
P3 Fading
P4 Fading
250
96h
15
1.2
96h
0
10
5
2h, 48h,96h
200
50
100
150
200
250
Experimental
0.4
100
0
0
100
Temperature (C)
150
200
250
300
0
12
These parameters were used to simulate the fading of each
peak by using equation (2) and the results were presented in
Fig. 3 with t taken as 2 hours, 48 hours and 96 hours. The total
theoretical curve for 2 hours, 48 hours and 96 hours as a result
of linear combination of individual TL peaks is presented in
Fig. 4.
300
205 ± 28C
Theoretical
250
24
36
48
60
72
84
96 108
Storage time (hours)
Temperature (C)
Figure 3. Simulation of glow peaks 1, 2, 3 and 4.
T L I n te n s i ty
0.8
150
50
0
Normalized TL
100
150
Temperature (C)
The fading of the whole curve, both experimental and
theoretical glow curves were shown in Fig. 5.
80
0
50
P2 Fading
2h
100
48h
0
T L In t e n s it y
120
P1 Fading
2h
T L In te n s it y
T L In t e n s it y
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Figure 5. The decay of experimental TL intensity and
theoretical intensity.
The decay of the P4 peak (205 + 28C) is found to be 1.56
% after 48 hours, whereas the same decay shown by theoretical
is 0.30%. At 96 hours, the experimental curve decay suddenly
to 16.35%, while theoretical decay is only 0.54%. These large
different values at 96 hours indicate that TL study with this
material may not be reliable after 48 hours. The decay
percentage were calculated with respect to 2 hours reading and
presented in table 3.
TABLE 3. Percentage of fading TL glow curves.
200
2h
150
100
Observation
205 + 28 C
Experimental
Theoretical
Experimental
Theoretical
Whole curve
70 C to 239 C
48h
50
TL response
% of fading w.r.t. 2h
2h
48h
96h
0.00 1.56 %
16.35 %
0.00 0.30 %
0.54 %
0.00 35.96 % 42.36 %
0.00 36.23 % 42.28 %
96h
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Temperature (C)
The P4 peak is contaminated by the neighboring P3 peak,
which still exist at 96 hours, whereas both theoretical and
experimental P1 and P2 peaks almost decayed completely at 96
hours.
Figure 4. Theoretical simulated curves at less than 2 hours,
48 hours and 96 hours.
Comparison of these theoretical curves with experimental
curves between 70 C to 239 C showed a deviation of 1.30 %,
2.63 % and 2.93 % at 2 hours, 48 hours and 96 hours
respectively. Percentage of deviation of experimental curve
with respect to theoretical curve is given in table 2. The whole
curve is taken in the range of 70 C to 239 C.
TABLE 2. Percentage of deviation of experimental curve
with respect to theoretical curve
Hours
FOM
2h
0.0129
48h
0.0829
96h
0.1882
IV.
CONCLUSION
The MS Excel spread sheet analysis could simulate the
experimental glow curve in to four TL peaks. The experimental
glow curve beyond 239 C is not fitted because the TL curve in
this portion is distorted and perhaps due to residual
background.
An analysis of the TL glow obtained within 2 hours showed
that the experimental TL glow curve consist of four TL peaks.
The peaks P1 at 85 C and P2 at 107 C, faded almost completely
within 48 hours. The theoretical analysis also showed that the
peak P3 at 155 C, faded slowly and P4 at 205 C was very
stable up to 96 hours. However, the experimental fitted curve
showed that P4 faded very fast from 48 hours to 96 hours. The
divergence of the experimental curve from the theoretical curve
at 48 hours is 1.56 % and at 96 hours is 16.56 %. Therefore, the
TL material (natural salt) can be utilized within 48 hours for
the purpose of TL dosimetry, without much correction. The
fading at room temperature is one of the important
considerations in any TL material. The position of P4 at around
205 C is a good dosimetry peak. The consistency of s
(approximately 1012) for P4 for 2 hour, 48 hour and 96 hour (48
hour and 96 hour not shown in this paper) also lies in the
physically realistic range of 1012 to 1014.
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Identify applicable sponsor/s here. (sponsors)
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