Progress in dosimetry as seen through solid physics phenomena

The writer reviews certain present or predictable applications of solid detectors for monitoring the external irradiation by ionizing radiation. He therefore confines himself to the devices that can be applied to health physics dosimetry with the possible extension to radiology, namely to the determination of energies absorbed in living tissue, in the dose ranges limited at the bottom by the level of natural radiation and at the top by irradiation incompatible with life. Activation detectors and scintillators are not included in this paper since they form very particular and fairly well known families. But, the photographic dosimeter and nuclear emulsions with their efficiency depending on the dose and their charged particle responses are presented, as are the radiophotoluminescent glasses and the thermoluminescent dosemeters, the stimulated electronic emission, the dosemeters based on damages in organic substances and the various other electronic dosemeters (Si diodes, HgI2 and CdTe crystals and electrets)