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  • Primer
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Luminescence dosimetry

Nature Reviews Methods Primers volume 2, Article number: 26 (2022) Cite this article

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Abstract

Luminescence dosimetry is the process of quantifying the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation using detectors that exhibit luminescence. The luminescence intensity scales with energy absorbed from the radiation field. Calibration enables conversion of the luminescence intensity to the quantity of interest, for example the absorbed dose, kerma and personal dose equivalent. The different techniques available — thermoluminescence (TL), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiophotoluminescence (RPL) — share a common theoretical framework. Alongside applications in radiation protection, including personal dosimetry and area monitoring, luminescence dosimetry is also used in industry, research and medicine. Examples include quality assurance in radiation therapy, mapping of radiation levels in new accelerators, the estimation of ionizing radiation dose to organs in medicine and accidents, and the characterization of the radiation environment in space. The objective of this Primer is to summarize the fundamental concepts of luminescence dosimetry, the main experimental considerations, analysis procedures, typical results, applications and limitations, with an outlook into potential future advances.

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Fig. 1: Steps involved in the application of luminescence dosimetry.
Fig. 2: Representation of the processes taking place during exposure (irradiation) and readout of a luminescence detector.
Fig. 3: Examples of luminescence detectors and a dosimeter and their response as a function of photon energy.
Fig. 4: Readout schemes and resultant luminescence in various conditions.
Fig. 5: Example of fitting of an experimental TL curve.
Fig. 6: Examples of applications of luminescence dosimeters.

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Acknowledgements

E.M.Y. appreciates the support of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (grant no. 2018/05982-0) and of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (grant no. 306843/2018-8). E.G.Y., J.B.C. and L.B. acknowledge the support from the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) (contract no. CTR00836).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Safety and Security, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland

    Eduardo G. Yukihara, Lily Bossin & Jeppe B. Christensen

  2. Radiation Dosimetry Group, Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    Stephen W. S. McKeever

  3. Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Roskilde, Denmark

    Claus E. Andersen

  4. Department of Radiation and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Adrie J. J. Bos

  5. Luminescence Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Ian K. Bailiff

  6. Nuclear Physics Department, Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Elisabeth M. Yoshimura

  7. Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Gabriel O. Sawakuchi

Authors
  1. Eduardo G. Yukihara
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  2. Stephen W. S. McKeever
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  3. Claus E. Andersen
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  4. Adrie J. J. Bos
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  5. Ian K. Bailiff
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  6. Elisabeth M. Yoshimura
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  7. Gabriel O. Sawakuchi
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  8. Lily Bossin
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  9. Jeppe B. Christensen
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Contributions

Introduction (E.G.Y., S.W.S.M. and E.M.Y.); Experimentation (E.G.Y., S.W.S.M. and I.K.B.); Results (E.G.Y., S.W.S.M., G.O.S. and C.E.A.); Applications (E.G.Y., S.W.S.M., I.K.B. and G.O.S.); Reproducibility and data deposition (E.G.Y. and S.W.S.M.); Limitations and optimizations (E.G.Y. and S.W.S.M.); Outlook (E.G.Y. and S.W.S.M.); Overview of the Primer (E.G.Y., S.W.S.M., C.E.A., A.J.J.B., I.K.B., E.M.Y., G.O.S., L.B. and J.B.C.).

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Correspondence to Eduardo G. Yukihara.

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Competing interests

C.E.A. is an employee of the Technical University of Denmark, a producer of luminescence dating instrumentation. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Methods Primers thanks Reuven Chen, Go Okada and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Glossary

Ionizing radiation

Both electromagnetic (X-rays, gamma-rays) and particle radiation of sufficient energy to cause ionizations in matter.

Deposited energy

Energy from the radiation field that stays in a volume in the form of excitations and ionizations of atoms and molecules.

Optically active centres

Lattice defects that introduce new absorption and/or emission bands in a crystalline insulator.

Thermoluminescence

(TL). Luminescence produced in an irradiated material under thermal stimulation of trapped charges.

Optically stimulated luminescence

(OSL). Luminescence produced in an irradiated material under optical stimulation of trapped charges.

Radiophotoluminescence

(RPL). Photoluminescence associated with radiation-induced optically active centres.

Luminescent detector

Element of the dosimetry system that is directly affected by the radiation.

Secondary electrons

Energetic electrons set in motion by photon interactions or the passage of charged particles in the material, which promote further ionizations in the material.

Mass–energy absorption coefficients

Fraction of the photon energy per unit mass that is transferred and remains in a volume in the medium.

Stopping power

Energy loss per track length for charged particles.

Charged particle equilibrium

(CPE). A condition in which the charged particles entering a volume of interest are balanced by an identical fluence of charged particles leaving that volume.

Phantom

Structure of specified shape and composition used to simulate the interaction of radiation in the body; phantoms simulating the human body or part of it are called body or anthropomorphic phantoms.

Bragg–Gray cavity

Detector or volume that is sufficiently small such that the energy deposited under photon irradiation is mainly by secondary electrons created outside the cavity.

Effective atomic number

(Zeff). Atomic number of a hypothetical elemental material whose probability for photoelectric interaction with photons of the radiation field is similar to that of the compound.

ICRU sphere

This is a reference 30-cm-diameter sphere consisting of 76.2% oxygen, 11.1% carbon, 10.1% hydrogen and 2.6% nitrogen and with a density of 1 g cm–3, used for the definition of operational quantities for area dosimetry.

Linear energy transfer

(LET). Mean energy deposited by a charged particle as a result of collisions with electrons per unit of traversed distance (J m–1 or, more typically, keV μm–1].

Luminescence dosimeter

Physical holder combining one or more luminescent detectors (sensors) and additional components such as filters and identification.

Resetting

Process (thermal or optical) of restoring a material or detector to its pre-irradiation state.

Phototransfer

Transfer of electronic charges between defects of different thermal stability in crystalline material.

Detection limit

The smallest true value of the measurement that ensures a specified probability of being detectable by the measurement procedure.

Ionization quenching

Reduction in luminescence efficiency with ionization density associated with the dose deposition, often estimated through the particle linear energy transfer.

Spread-out Bragg peak

Depth–dose pattern of energy deposition of heavy charged particles (protons, carbon ions) optimized for radiotherapy, combining several particle energies.

Radiation transport codes

Computational codes typically based on Monte Carlo methods for the simulation of the radiation interaction processes based on their interaction probabilities.

Radioluminescence

Luminescence emitted by the material during irradiation.

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Yukihara, E.G., McKeever, S.W.S., Andersen, C.E. et al. Luminescence dosimetry. Nat Rev Methods Primers 2, 26 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00102-0

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