Characterization of the thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) of BeO

Thermally Assisted Optically Stimulated Luminescence (TA-OSL) from Commercial BeO Dosimeters

BeO is another luminescent phosphor with very deep traps (VDTs) in its matrix that could not be stimulated using either thermal or conventional optical stimulations. The present study attempts to stimulate these traps using thermally assisted optically stimulated luminescence (TA-OSL), a combination of simultaneous thermal and optical stimulation that is applied to the material following a thermoluminescence measurement up to 500 °C. An intense, peak-shaped TA-OSL signal is measured throughout the entire temperature range between room temperature and 270 °C. This signal can be explained as the transfer of charges from VDTs to both dosimetric TL traps. Experimental features such as the peaked shape of the signal along with the presence of residual TL after the TA-OSL suggest that recombination of TA-OSL takes place via the conduction band. Isothermal TA-OSL is not effective for extending the maximum detection dose thresholds of BeO, unlike minerals such as quartz and aluminum oxide. Nevertheless, TA-OSL could be effectively used in order to either (a) control the occupancy of VDTs, circumventing the intense sensitivity changes induced by long-term uses and high accumulated dose to the VDTs, or (b) measure the total dose accumulated over a series of repetitive dose calculations.

A direct comparison of the optically stimulated luminescent properties of BeO and Al2O3 for clinical in-vivo dosimetry

Optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry is a relatively recent field of in-vivo dosimetry in clinical radiotherapy, developing over the last 20 years. As a pilot study, this paper presents a direct comparison between the sensitivity variance with use, stability of measurement and linearity of the current clinical standard Al₂O₃:C and a potential alternative, beryllium oxide. A set of ten optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters (OSLD), including five of each type, were used simultaneously and irradiated on a Versa HD linear accelerator. Having similar sensitivity, while Al₂O₃:C showed a relatively stable signal response from initial use, BeO was found to have a higher response to the same dose. However, BeO displayed a strong exponential decline from initial signal response following a model of [Formula: see text], reaching stability after approximately 10 irradiation cycles. BeO was shown to have potentially higher accuracy than Al₂O₃:C, with less variation between individual doses. Both OSLD showed good linearity between 0.2-5.0 Gy. Between these bounds, Al₂O₃:C demonstrated a strong linear response following the trend [Formula: see text], however beyond this showed deviation from linearity, resulting in a measured dose of [Formula: see text] Gy at 10.0 Gy dose delivery. BeO showed strong linearity across the full examined range of 0.2-10.0 Gy with following a model of [Formula: see text] Gy with a recorded dose at 10.0 Gy delivery as [Formula: see text] Gy. In conclusion, BeO does show large variance in sensitivity between individual OSLD and a considerable initial variance and decline in dose-response, however after pre-conditioning and individual normalisation to offset OSLD specific sensitivity BeO provides not only a viable alternative to Al₂O₃:C, but potentially provide higher accuracy, precision and reproducibility for in-vivo dosimetry.

Beryllium oxide nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization, and thermoluminescence evaluation for gamma radiation detection

In this study, beryllium oxide nanoparticles (BeO NPs) were synthesized by polymer-gel method with schlenk line. The products were then assessed using FESEM, TGA/DSC, XRD and BET analyses. The quality of two nanooxides, that were calcined at 700 and 800 °C, was studied and compared with bulk BeO particles. The results showed that nanoparticles calcined at 800 °C were more uniform and had ellipsoidal morphology with a particle size of ∼35 nm. Investigation thermoluminescence (TL) characteristics of BeO NPs showed that with the decreasing exposed dose/increasing the BeO particle size, TL peaks were observed at higher temperatures. The intensities of glow curves increase linearly with the increasing absorbed dose in the range of 0.001 mGy–1000 Gy. Various other studies including response fading, minimum temperature and minimum time for annealing, and response changes in repeatability cycles of dosimeter also approved the ability of the prepared BeO NPs for use in gamma radiation dosimetry.