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- A TLD system based on lithium borate for
The suitability of different preparations of the measurement of doses to patients
undergoing medical irradiation
thermoluminescent lithium borate for medical W A Langmead and B F Wall
Recent citations
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properties of gamma, ultraviolet and ion-
beam irradiated phosphor KCaBO3:Dy
Chirag Malik et al
1. Introduction
Manganese doped lithium borate, Li2B407:Mn developed at the Windscale Works of
British Nuclear FuelsLtd (Brunskill 1968), from the method of preparation established
by Schulman et a1 (1967), has been extensively used in the medical dosimetry pro-
gramme of the National Radiological Protection Board, and a detailed assessment of
its properties and performance was published by Langmead and Wall in 1976. The
attractive features of this thermoluminescent material for the measurement of doses
arising from diagnostic x-ray examinations are:
(i) a flat energy response with respect to soft tissue ( * 5 % between 15 keV and
2 MeV),
(ii) asimple glow curvestructure which eliminatestheneedforcomplicated
annealing regimes,
(iii) the low fading of stored dose information ( 4 % loss in one month),
(iv) sufficiently high sensitivity and low background signal to enable doses down
to 100 pGy (10 mrad) to be measured with adequate precision,
(v) low cost (f0.02 per 30 mg of powder dosemeter in 1977).
However, an increasein the luminescent signal-to-noise ratiowould be a desirable
improvement in dosemeter performance to permit doses lower than 100 pGy to be
measured accurately. This would be particularly useful in establishing doses received
by patients’ organs outside the mainbeamduring x-ray examination, or doses to
radiographic staff, both being exposed only to low levels of scattered radiation,
The inherentsensitivity of the Li2B407:Mn developedby Brunskill is considerably
higher than that of other nominally tissue-equivalent phosphors like lithium fluouride
LiF:Mg,Ti. This is evident from the response per unit absorbed doseof this preparation
of lithium borate which is 62% of the response of lithium fluoride, when both are
measured with a photomultiplier tube having a quantum efficiency 8.5 times higher
at the wavelength of the fluoride emission peak compared with that of the borate
(Langmead andWall 1976). Selection of a photomultiplier tubewith a higherquantum
1024 B F Wall et a1
efficiency for the orange (600 nm) light emitted by Li2B407:Mnwill not necessarily
improve the signal to noise ratio. The inherent dark current from the photocathode
is likely to be higher and the photomultiplier sensitivity to spurious infrared radiation
from hot parts of the reader is increased. These effects may well overshadow the
increase in signal, and only by a careful selection of photomultiplier tube and optical
filters could the signal-to-noise ratio be improved.
An alternative approach is to change the dopant of the phosphor in order to shift
the wavelength of the emission towardsthe blue end of the spectrum where photomulti-
plier tubes are much more sensitive. Several transition metals andrare-earth elements,
most of which produceablueshift,havebeentriedasalternativedopants to
manganese, but initially only silver resulted in acomparablethermoluminescence
efficiency (Thompson and Ziemer 1973). Rzyski and Nambi (1977) confirmed these
disappointing results with 14 rare-earth elements of the lanthanide series. Further-
more, all these alternative dopants, particularly the rare-earths, have considerably
higher atomic numbers than manganese, and therefore may adversely affect the good
tissue-equivalence of lithium borate even at the low doping concentrations used in
these investigations (0.1 to l.6*/0 by weight).
However in the same year Takenaga et a1 (1977) reported considerable success
using a combination of copper and silver dopants at very low concentrations (0.02%
by weight of eachimpurity) in lithium borate. This new phosphorexhibitedtwo
emission bands in the ultra violet-Aregion and the authorsclaimed a thermolumines-
cence efficiency three times higher than Li2B407:Mn.
Samples of this promising material were obtained for further investigation from
Dr Yamashita of the Matsushita Electric Industrial Company. In addition, samples
of another lithium borate phosphor doped only with copper were received, despite
the fact that Takenaga et a1 (1977) had dismissed lithium borate doped with 0.02%
copper and no silver as being very insensitive. However, our studies revealed that
the copper-doped material was far superior to material containing both copper and
silver. A further sample of Li2B407:Cuwas received from Dr Yamashita together
with a brief technical note implying that Li2B407:Cuwas now the preferred phosphor.
In this paper, the dosimetric characteristics of these two new Japanese phosphors are
compared with the established Li2B407:Mn currentlyused in this laboratory.
other hand, appeared to be contaminated with manganese and iron and to contain
considerably more copper than silver, as shown table 1. There is, however, consider-
able doubt regarding thereliability of this analysis due to interference from other
low
atomic weight elements and theinitial use of added silver as an internal standard.
Phosphor Dopant
or Probable
range of concentration
andimpurity
product (% by weight)
r"
c
g
U
c
c
U
z
5
Y
5
a
c
10
c
c
1
L
c4
z
J
.-
E
-
C
c
L
-
J
U
W
r(
e
W
iE
for
Li2B407 dosimetry
medical 1027
Corresponding Mn distrihution
3. Dosimetric properties
3.1. Relative sensitivities and usable dose range
Prior to use all three types of phosphor were annealed at 300 "C for 30 mins. These
were theoptimum conditionsforremovingresidualluminescencefrom previous
irradiations of up to 1 Gy and maintaining the original sensitivity. Annealing was not
strictly necessary if previous doses were less than 10 mGy. Unlike Lakshmanan et a1
(1981) no discolouring of the copper-doped phosphorwas observed U-'-5this anneal-
ing regime and repeated anneals produced significant
no loss of sensitivity. All readouts
were performed under a nitrogen atmosphereusing a linear heating rate up to 300 "C
and integrating the readout signal under the main dosimetry peak.
Measurements of relative sensitivities of the phosphors in terms of light output
per unit dose are very dependent on the spectral response of the reader and the
1028 B F Wall et a1
Table 2. Relative sensitivities and background levels for the three phosphors.
The latest spectral response data for these tubes, published by the manufacturer,
indicate that the ratio of the quantum efficiencies at 368 nm (the peakof the emission
spectrumfortheJapanesephosphors)andat600 nm (thepeak of the emission
spectrum for the Mn-doped phosphor) is 8.4 for the S-l1 photocathode and 18 for
the bialkali photocathode. Reader 1, is fitted with the S - l 1 tube, and has an 11 cm
long Perspex light guide between the phosphor and the PM tube which attenuates the
ultraviolet emission for the Japanese phosphors by 34%. This was measured on a
Pye Unicam SP 1800 ultraviolet spectrophotometer. Thus, the relative response of
reader 1 to Japanese phosphors compared with Li2B407:Mn would be expected to
. reader 2, having no light guide, the relative
be reduced to 5.5 (i.e., 8 . 4 ~ 0 . 6 6 ) For
responseshouldremainat 18. However,theobservedrelativesensitivities of the
three phosphors shown in table 2 differ from the above ratiosbecause the phosphors’
inherent sensitivities, whenirradiated, are not the same. Relative inherent sensitivities
(i.e.,thenumber of photonsemittedperunitabsorbeddose of 90SrP-rays) of
1: 0.44 : 0.063 for Mn : Cu : Cu,Ag dopants, respectively, relate the observed relative
sensitivities to the expected response ratios of the readers. Thus, although Li2B407:Mn
is inherently about twice as sensitive as Li2B407:Cuand about 15 times as sensitive
as Li2B4O7:Cu,Ag, it is found in practice that the Cu-doped material appears nearly
eight times more sensitive than the Mn-doped material, when read in a reader with
abialkali photocathodeandno uv absorbingoptics.Undertheseconditions,
LiZB407:Cu,Ag has about the samesensitivity as Li2B407:Mn.
The usable dose rangeof the phosphorsis limited at thelower end by the variability
in the background noise from undosed samples and at the upper end by the onset
of superlinearity or saturation. The dose that is equivalent to the mean background
LiZB40,for
dosimetry
medical 1029
3.2. Fading
Fading is the loss of radiation-inducedthermoluminescentsignal with time. To
establish the degreeof fading of this stored dose information, samples
of each phosphor
were dosed to 0.01 Gy and kept for periods up to six weeks under different lighting
conditions. For all three types of Li2B407, the fading of samples stored in the dark
in opaque plastic envelopes was less than 5% in a month. The results after 10 days
storage of samples exposed to fluorescent or tungsten light are shown in figure 3 . In
this experiment, the phosphors were placed either 0.3 m from a 125 W fluorescent
tube (Thorn Warmwhite) or 0.4 m from a40 W tungsten lamp. Under both conditions,
similar fading results wereobtained. The degree of fading for the Li2B407:Mn samples
remained at less than 5 % in a month. However, during the first few days of storage
the fading for the Li2B407:Cu and Li2B407:Cu,Ag samples was high. During the first
24 h, the signal from these latter samples was reduced to 60% of the original signal.
1030 B F Wall et a1
100 Li2BL07: Mn
LiZB,07 : t u
Li2BL07 :CU,AI
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Tlme ( d a y s I
Figure 3. Fading of dose signal when phosphors exposed to fluorescent and tungsten light.
After a weekof storage, no furthersignificant fading was observed and for bothtypes
of material the measuredfading over a month was about 8 5 % .
The glow peaks of the three types of LiZB407 areshown in figure 4. The peaks
were recorded using linear heating from 20 "C to 300 "C in 12 S . A rapidly fading
low temperature peak below 160 "C was observed in all samples. However, this peak
was not included in the readout phase of the heat cycle since the readout signal was
integrated from the trough between the peaks tofew a seconds beyond the main peak
in eachcase. The mainpeakoccurredat marginally lower temperatures for both
Li2B407:Cu and Li2B407:Cu,Ag compared with the Li2B407:Mn. While the two
peaks were clearly resolved for the Mn-doped material, the copper-doped samples
-.
.
LizBL07:Mn L1I ? B ~ O ~ : C U , A L i 2 B ~ 0 7 : C u
!
Temperatur
300 160 2C
I
1
L
LiZB& for medical dosimetry 1031
showed poor resolution of the two glow peaks for the heating cycle used, leading to
the possibility of increased fading.
The effect of humidity during storage of lithium borate phosphors both before and
after irradiation has been discussed by many authors. Some preparations of the
phosphor were found to be hygroscopic causing caking of the powder grains, but this
has not been observed under operational conditions for any of the materials discussed
in this paper. Mason (1974) measured a loss of 16% in sensitivity for the manganese-
doped lithium borate powder when stored for one month at 40 "C and 70% relative
humidity. Takenaga et a1 (1980) shows a loss of 10-25% for the copper-dopedpowder
after 2-6 months storage at 25 "C and 95% relative humidity. These are relatively
small effects under rather extreme conditions and have not been studied in this paper
since control dosemeters that have shared the same environmental conditions are
used to calibrate our TLD system every time that it is used. The routine annealing
procedure restores any sensitivity lost during storage at high humidities.
:::p,!
I ‘ T ’ ’ ’ ” “ I
a
0
v
“_ ”
0.8
0.6
p Measured response
W
Measured response
0.4
W
LT 10 20 50 100 200 500 1000
Figjure 5. Theoretical and measured energy response curves for Li2B407:Cu and Li2B40;r:Cu,Ag.
bars indicateone standarddeviation. Theoretical responsecurves: A, Li2B407(0.35wt% cu. 0.35 wt%
B, Li2B407 (no dopant).
Figure 6. Theoretical and measured energy response curves for Li2B407:Mn.Solid line, bestfit to measured
points. Broken line, theoretical response for Li2B407 (0.3 wt% Mn). Error bars indicate one standard
deviation.
4. Conclusion
The salient thermoluminescence propertiesof the lithium borate phosphors measured
in this study are summarised in table 3. Li2B407:Cu,Agis seen to be the
least attractive
formedicalapplicationsbeingincapable of accuratedosimetry below 500 p,Gy
(50 mrad), showing significant light induced fading and a large over-response to low
energy x-rays compared with muscle. Li2B407:Cu on the otherhand would appear
LiZB407for medical dosimetry 1033
Table 3. Summary of the thermoluminescence properties of the three lithium borate phosphors.
Phosphor
Thermoluminescence
property
LizB407:Cu,Ag Li2B407:Cu Li2B407:Mn
~~ ~~~ ~
t These figures relate to reader 2 which has optimum sensitivity for the Cu and Cu:Ag-doped phosphors.
Resume
L‘aptitude h la dosimttrie mtdicale des difftrentes prtparations de borate de lithium thermoluminescent.
Nous avons Ctudit les proprittts thermoluminescentes de trois prtparations difftrentes de borate de
lithium
en fonction de leur utilisation sp6cifique en dosimttrie mkdicale. Pour les mesures de faibles doses, les
proprittes de la poudre de borate de lithium dopee au cuivre la rendent plus attrayante que le phosphore
dopt au manganese plus conventionnel. Cependant, la rtponse en Cnergie des mattriaux dopts au cuivre
n’est pas aussi approprite que celle des mattriaux dopes au manganese pour la mesure des doses pour les
photons d’tnergie inftrieure a 100 keV. Nous montrons que cela induit tgalement une diminution apprtci-
able de I’tclairement.
Zusammenfassung
Die Eignung verschiedener Lithiumborat-Thermoluminiszenz-Praparatezur medizinischen Dosimetrie.
Die Thermoluminiszenz-Eigenschaftenvon drei verschiedenen Lithiumborat-Praparaten wurden im Hin-
blick auf ihren Nutzen furdie medizinische Dosimetrieuntersucht.Die Eigenschaften des mit Kupfer
dotierten Lithiumborat-Pulvers sind interessanter fur Messungen kleiner Strahlendosen als das konvention-
elle mit Mangan dotierte Phosphor. Trotzdem war zur Messung de Gewebedosis bei Photonenenergien
unter 100 keV die Energie-Empfindlichkeit des kupferdotierten Materials nicht ganz so geeignet wie die
des mangandotierten Materials; es zeigt auperdem ein betrachtliches durch Licht induziertes Fading.
References
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