INFLUENCE OF REPEATED USE AND ANNEALING ATMOSPHERE ON LIF TLD-100 RESPONSE TO ALPHA-PARTICLES

We study the possible effects of both the annealing atmosphere and the repeated use of chips on the response of LiF thermoluminescent dosime ters (TLD-100) irradiated with 5 MeV alpha-particles. No statistically significant differences were found between glow curve shapes or total deconvoluted response of dosimeter chips annealed either in N-2 or in air and irradiated to about 4.5 Gy up to ten consecutive times. Annea ling in O-2, and repeated use of the chips up to five times, showed si milar results. We conclude that TLD-100 dosimeters used under alpha-pa rticle irradiation can be subjected to a simple air annealing between a series of consecutive irradiations and readouts. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.