Estimation of the absorbed dose of two thermoluminescent borates to monoenergetic neutrons

Neutrons are used in medicine, analytical chemistry, biology, materials study, etc. Neutrons have a high radiobiological efficiency so exposure to them represents a health risk. To design safe protocols for use, handling and shielding against neutrons is necessary to know their spectrum or, failing that, measure the dose. For this, different instruments are used as passive and active detectors, in our group Magnesium Borate (MBO) compounds with thermoluminescent properties were synthesized against ¹³⁷Cs gammas and ²⁴¹ AmBe neutrons. The objective of this work was to determine the response to the absorbed dose of MBO:Dy and MBO:Dy,Na as detectors of thermal neutrons in an area monitor before monoenergetic neutrons. The response function was estimated using Monte Carlo methods for 47 monoenergetic neutrons (1E(9) up to 20 MeV). The area monitor is a 20.32 x 20.32 cm polyethylene cylinder. We found that the absorbed dose response of MBO:Dy is slightly greater than that of MBO:Dy,Na. Furthermore, neutron capture is the interaction that occurs most likely. (Author)