Leaked filters for energetic and angular dependence corrections of thermoluminescent response

Many thermoluminescent materials has been developed and used for photon personal dosimetry but no one has all desired characteristics alone. These characteristics include robustness, high sensitivity, energy photon independence, large range of photon energy detection, good reproducibility and small fading. The phosphors advantages begin to be more required and its disadvantages have became more apparent, in a global market more and more competitive. Calcium Sulfate Dysprosium doped (CaSO4:Dy) and Calcium Fluoride Manganese doped (CaF2:Mn) phosphor Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLDs) have been used by many laboratories. They are used in environmental and area monitoring, once they present more sensibility than other phosphors, like LiF:Mg. Theirs main disadvantage is the strong energetic dependence response, which must be corrected for theirs application in routine, where the kind of photon radiation is unknown a priori. An interesting way to make this correction is to interject a leaked filter between the beam and the phosphor, where the beam could strike the phosphor at any angle. In order to reduce the energetic dependence on any incidence angle, this work presents experimental and simulation studies on some filter geometries. It was made TL readings and simulations on TL responses to photon irradiations with gamma rays of 60Co and X-rays of 33; 48 and 118 keV, on many incidence angles from zero to ninety degrees. The results pointed out the best filter thicknesses and widths, in order to optimize the correction of energetic dependence for the studied geometries. (author)