Supralinear response and efficiency of LiF:Mg,Ti to 0.7, 1.5 and 3 MeV protons

The thermoluminescent (TL) response, supralinearity function, and relative efficiency with respect to 60Co γ-rays, of TLD-100 exposed to 0.7, 1.5 and 3 MeV protons have been measured. The TL response of the glow curve peaks using two different deconvolutions, separating in either 7 (3-9) or 9 peaks (3-10 and peaks 6a and 6b), was investigated. Results for the supralinearity function of peaks 5 and 7-9 and the relative response of peaks 5 and 7 are insensitive to the chosen deconvolution scheme. At all energies we observe that peak 5 is slightly supralinear and that supralinearity increases as a function of the peak temperature. The relative efficiencies, measured for the total TL signal (area under the glow curve) and peaks 5 and 7, decrease with the proton energy having values of 0.33, 0.46 and 0.70 (total TL signal), 0.22, 0.32 and 0.53 (peak 5) and 1.4, 2.6 and 3.6 (peak 7) at 0.7, 1.5 and 3 MeV, respectively. These data agree with the systematics reported in the literature. The measurements of the supralinearity function are compared with Monte Carlo track interaction model calculations. The analysis suggests that the model ion track effective radius and the saturation radius are independent of the incident ion energy