Commercial optical fibre as TLD material

This work presents a study of commercial SiO 2 optical fibre thermoluminescence (TL) properties as part of the efforts within the Dosimetric Application Project at the Physics Institute of the University of Mexico to develop new radiation detection materials and technologies. The SiO 2 commercial optical fibre studied demonstrates useful TL properties and is an excellent candidate for use in TL dosimetry of ionising radiation. The optical fibre's glow curve was observed between 30 and 400°C after exposure to 60 Co gamma radiation. One very well-defined glow peak has a maximum at 230°C. The TL response between 100 and 350 C increases monotonically over a wide dose range, from 0.1 Gy to several kGy. It is linear in the range 0.1-3 Gy, which is important for clinical high dose or accident dosimetry. The optical fibre demonstrated high data reproducibility, low residual signal and almost no fading in our study. Moreover, the optical fibre can be re-used several times, after thermal annealing, without any detriment in the dose-response. All these TL characteristics, plus the small size of the 150 μm diameter SiO 2 optical fibre, the high flexibility, easy handling and low cost compared with other TL materials, make the commercial optical fibre a very promising TL material for use in research, medicine, industry, reactors, and a variety of other applications.