Influence of the effective atomic number in the thermoluminescent response

Nowadays the thermoluminescent dosimetry is one of the methods more reliable for ionizing radiation dosimetry, for that in many parts of the world, different research groups continue in the development of new TL materials. Notwithstanding, the use of these materials for dosimetric radiation purposes, should to take into account the effective atomic number (Zeff) to avoid an underestimate or overestimation of the measured dose, for example, in radiodiagnostic or radiotherapy. It is well known that some materials considered as equivalent to the soft biological tissue, present smaller sensitivity when being irradiated with low energy photons, while the TL material considered as not equivalent to the tissue, presents the supra sensitivity effect. In this work the results of the TL signal shown by different TL materials, when being irradiated with photons of effective energy between 24 keV and 1.25 MeV, and its relationship with their Zeff calculated by three methods are presented. (Author)