Gamma and enclosure dosimetry for TL/ESR dating with the new Al2O3:C TL dosemeter

Al2O3:C manufactured by LAIKS-CORUND, Ekaterinenburg, Russia, offers several advantages for the measurement of environmental radiation: stability, low self-dose, high sensitivity and energy deposition features under gamma and beta irradiation very similar to quartz and quartz-like TL minerals. In the present work those properties were tested for in situ gamma dosimetry, by comparison with other dosimetric techniques. It was confirmed that this phosphor is very well adapted to this purpose. On the other hand, the new alumina can be made insensitive to external alpha radiation by means of thermal treatments. This α-insensitized alumina is very interesting for enclosure dosimetry in the perspective of quartz inclusion dating. In this technique, the quartz grains to be dated are faithfully simulated by alumina: the phosphor allows us to measure directly the dose that would be experienced by quartz grains (HF etched, as usual). However, because the attenuation of beta radiation by course grains must be taken into account in inclusion dating, the role of this factor was theoretically and experimentally - with Al2O3 - explored. The preliminary experiments indicated that enclosure dosimetry with this new alumina was a promising technique. (Author)