The Characterisation and Application of High Temperature Silica Yarns as Thermoluminescence Radiation Dosimeters

Abstract

There is a growing number of applications where ionizing radiation is used and for this reason its detection is of great importance. One way of measuring the absorbed dose is by thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD). In this, a phosphor is employed to record ionizing radiation. A suitable technique is then used to thermally extract this information to determine the radiation dose the phosphor was exposed to. TLDs are usually inexpensive and physically small which makes them ideal to use in both personal and environmental dosimetry. These devices are well researched but have drawbacks such as a high processing cost and not being able to detect overall dose received by wearer since they only cover small part of person’s body. This leads to a lower than actual dose readings when dosimeter is, for instance, shielded by another material during radiation
exposure. In this project a silica yarn was explored to determine its suitability in dosimetry use. This material has promising applications in both, personal and environmental dosimetry because of its physical flexibility. This can be utilized for innovative applications such as development of a dosimeter in the form of clothing. The primary goal was characterization of the relationship between irradiation of the material by a known dose and its subsequent reading by the process of thermoluminescence (TL). Correlation factor of 0.9 was found which confirms usability of silica yarn for TL dosimetry. Further work is proposed to develop a custom made reader for fabric type phosphors in order to achieve accurate detection of absorbed dose.