ESR and TL dosimetry systems: comparative measurements for human phantom

Abstract

Mixtures of small fragments of tooth enamel as well as thermoluminescence (TL) dosimeters were placed into the tissue-equivalent phantom of the human head with skeleton (approximately at the level of the jaws) and irradiated using 137Cs low dose-rate gamma therapeutic sources ('SELEKTRON' LDR 137Cs). Phantom, samples of teeth and TL detectors were irradiated behind water tank to produce scattered irradiation. The same irradiation with the same geometry was performed in air too. For gamma-spectrometry 137Cs sources with very low activity were used but with the same geometry as therapeutic sources. The absorbed dose in enamel was estimated with the help of ESR spectrometer 'ESP-300 E' (Brucker). The samples of tooth enamel were partially used for preliminary dose evaluation by ESR signal before starting of experiment. TL dosimetry was performed by TL reader model 8800 (HARSHAW) using TL dosimeters calibrated with 137Cs. The paper presents data obtained in comparative aspects.