Thermoluminescent Radiation Dosimetry

Radiobiology and radiotherapy studies have demonstrated that differences of 10 percent in absorbed dose will produce clearly observable variations in biological response. It has been suggested, therefore, that an accuracy of 5 to 6 percent and a precision of 2 to 3 percent are required for the determination of absorbed dose in biological applications. It should be mentioned that these requirements are far more severe than those generally encountered in radiation protection or environmental radiation dosimetry. The short range and resulting spatial inhomogeneity of beta rays make it necessary to use thin foils in beta-ray dosimetry, otherwise, the thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) will exhibit severe energy dependence due to the thickness being much greater than the beta particle range. This chapter discusses basic factors affecting the sensitivity of “bare” TLDs. The main application of TLD to fast neutron dosimetry has been in the estimation of gamma dose via neutron-insensitive dosimeters.