Preliminary application of thermoluminescence and single aliquot regeneration method for dose reconstruction in soda lime glass

The research described in this paper shows that the use of the single aliquot regeneration (SAR) method for thermoluminescence (TL) measurements applied to soda lime glasses allows to carry out a retrospective dose evaluation. We have followed a fast and efficient sample preparation procedure which permits measurements without powdering and sieving processes. We have analyzed the TL signal of commercial soda lime watch glass irradiated with 6 Mega Volts (MV) LINAC photons, 10 MeV LINAC electrons and 62 MeV protons. After the initial exposure and following TL reading, the samples are successively irradiated with increasing doses of photons. Therefore, for each sample its calibration curve is constructed and the initial dose is reconstructed. We have found that for samples initially irradiated with photons the SAR procedure allows to reconstruct dose of 1 Gy with an accuracy of 20%. The application of the SAR procedure has highlighted the ability of measuring even low photon doses (e.g. ≈0.5 Gy) with appreciable accuracy. The application of the SAR method for samples initially exposed to electrons and protons provides values of reconstructed doses less accurate. The effect of the fading on the dose reconstruction with this SAR procedure is also discussed. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.