Sintered Al2O3 based Materials for Radiotherapy Thermoluminescent Dosimeter Applications

INTRODUCTION The thermoluminescent (TL) properties of various materials have been studied since a long time but many of these developments never reach the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) users. α-Al2O3:C TL detectors were first developed and produced at Urals Polytechnical Institute ( UPI ) (1) in the form of a single crystal. These TLD ( model 2600 – 80 ) are now supplied by Victoreen to many countries, and have been used for personnel and environmental dosimetry. Improvement in the TL and TSEE characteristics of Al2O3 could be achieved by the intentional introduction of lattice defects such as oxygen vacancies and impurity centers formed by carbon (2, 3). The objective of the present work is to develop an alumina based material for application as a thermoluminiscent dosimeters (TLDs) for patients submitted to radiotherapy sessions, and also to establish the improvement on TL properties related to the microstructure, composition and samples process production. The TLDs are commonly used to determine the patient absorbed doses of radiation (4, 5) thus providing an opportunity to estimate the radiation dose received by a patient during a radiotherapy session, and to detect errors that can occur in dose delivery for a patient.