Author’s Accepted Manuscript

The effect of Na2O co-doping on the TL

characteristics and kinetic parameters of Cu -
doped Calcium Lithium borate glass
irradiated with the cobalt-60 gamma rays,
6MeV electron and 6MV X-ray photon

Ismail Rammadhan, Saddon Taha, Husin Wagiran

www.elsevier.com/locate/radphyschem

PII: S0969-806X(18)30081-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.05.028
Reference: RPC7870
To appear in: Radiation Physics and Chemistry

Received date: 28 January 2018

Revised date: 21 May 2018
Accepted date: 23 May 2018
Cite this article as: Ismail Rammadhan, Saddon Taha and Husin Wagiran, The
effect of Na2O co-doping on the TL characteristics and kinetic parameters of
Cu -doped Calcium Lithium borate glass irradiated with the cobalt-60 gamma
rays, 6MeV electron and 6MV X-ray photon, Radiation Physics and
Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.05.028
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The effect of Na2O co-doping on the TL characteristics and kinetic parameters of Cu
- doped Calcium Lithium borate glass irradiated with the cobalt-60 gamma rays,
6MeV electron and 6MV X-ray photon.

Ismail Rammadhana,b,* ,Saddon Tahaa, HusinWagiranb

a
Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences and Health, Koya University, Danielle Mitterrand
Boulevard, Koya 45, Kurdistan Region - Iraq
b
Department of Physics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 , Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

Abstract
The influence of co-dopant Na2O on the thermoluminescence (TL) properties and kinetic
parameters of Cu2O doped Calcium Lithium borate glass (CLB:Cu) are comprehensively examined

and studied in this paper. The glasses were prepared by melt quenching method upon adding various Na2O
concentrations of 0.1% to 1 mol%, and irradiated with 60CO gamma-ray, 6MeV electron and 6MV X-ray
photon. The glow curve exhibits a prominent peak (TM) at 188oC. The TL intensity and sensitivity was
enhanced by a factor of 2 and 1.7 respectively due to the incorporation of Na2O, and this was attributed to
the creation of extra electron traps mediated by radiative recombination energy transfer. We achieved
good linearity of the TL yield with dose low fading, excellent reproducibility and a promising effective
atomic number (Zeff =8.85), all of which are highly suitable for dosimetry. The effects of sunlight on the TL
are also tested and investigated. These attractive features demonstrate that our dosimeter is useful in
personal, environmental and medical radiation therapy application.

Keywords: Dosimetric properties. Glow curve. Borate glass. Sodium oxide. Copper
oxide.Thermoluminescence dosimetry.

1. Introduction

Human beings have created many new radiation sources in the past five decades to improve the
quality of our daily life. Although the benefits of radiation are tremendous nowadays, it can be considered
as a severe danger and may cause cancer and genetic defects. Therefore, the personal, environmental and
medical dosimetry is an important issue in safety and health care measures that makes it a valuable field of
scientific research. In these applications, normally radiation with very low doses or dose rate, need to be
measured and to be in a fast, simple and easy way. Environmental dosimetry is a demanding activity to
detect and measure doses in response to complex, variable and usually weak radiation fields of natural or
artificial origin. These conditions constitute a permanent challenge for TL dosimetry.

The choice of the type of dosimetry material is normally based on some specific characteristics that
all TL dosimeters are expected to fulfill. These specific features can be summarized as, the material must
have high sensitivity , it should have a low rate of fading property which means the ability to store
dosimetric information for a long time; a thermoluminescence dosimeter should give a simple and single
glow peak around (180-250°C), linearity between dose and TL response; should have effective atomic
number close to that of the human tissue for thermoluminescence dosimeter that is used in personnel and

1
medical; the thermoluminescence dosimeter should be mechanically strong, resistant against humidity,
gases, moisture, and organic solvents; it should be inexpensive to manufacture and non-toxic in case of in-
vivo i.e. in the body testing; it should have good stability through multiple readout cycles and they should
have simple annealing process [3, 7, 9, 12, 15].

Recently, a lot of investigations on TL dosimetry in glass have been done especially in borate glasses
due to their high sensitivity, low cost and easy preparation. The present study was intended to investigate
dosimetric properties of new material from copper doped calcium lithium borate glass system and sodium
co-doped with copper doped calcium lithium borate glass system. This study could reveal the potential of
CLB: Cu,Na to serve as thermoluminescence dosimeter.

2. Material and methods

Melt- quenching method has been used for the preparation of Calcium lithium borate (CLB) glasses in
the system (90–x) H3BO3 – 10Li2CO3 – xCaCO3 with 5 ≤ x ≤ 35mol%.The glasses were doped with different
concentrations of Cu2O with compositions (80-y) H3BO3 – 10Li2CO3 –10Ca CO3 – y Cu2O and 0.005 ≤ y ≤
0.1mol%.The details of techniques which have been adopted for the preparation of the samples were
reported in our earlier paper [11]. For the present study, a particular composition 79.98 H3BO3 – 10Li2CO3
– 10Ca CO3 – 0.02 Cu2O –xNa2O with five values of x ranging from 0.1to1 (mol %) is chosen. The
compositions of the prepared samples are illustrated in Table (1).

In this work, the dosimeters in the form of solid pieces of glass were annealed at 300 oC for 30min. The
optimal values were obtained in the tested interval from 100 oC - 400 oC for fixed time at 30min (Fig.1) and
the time from 15-60 min for fixed temperature at 300 oC (Fig.2). These optimized values of the annealing
temperature and time are giving high TL response with low standard deviation. Various radiation sources
have been used to irradiate the prepared glass samples to investigate various TL properties. The different
sources of radiation include: (I) Gamma radiation from Cobalt-60 gamma cell source – Gamma cell machine
Excel 220 model at room temperature. This source is available at University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
(II) Linear accelerator (Model Elekta). LINAC produces high energy electron beam that can be utilized
directly for cancer treatment or forwarded to a heavy metal target (tungsten) to produce high energy
photons (X-rays).

The typical spectrums of a clinical x-ray beam consist of continuous bremsstrahlung spectrum and line
spectra characteristic of the target material which are superimposed onto continuous bremsstrahlung
spectrum. The glass chips samples were placed on a solid phantom at 100 cm source surface distance
within the field of view of 10 x10cm2.

The source of photon and electron radiation is available at Department of Radiotherapy, Pantai
Hospital Penang, Penang Malaysia. The irradiate samples need to be readout after 24 h to eliminate the
spurious signals from shallow traps, using TLD reader. The TL yields are readout using TLD Reader; model
Harshaw 4500 available at Nuclear Laboratory, Physics Departments, Faculty of Science, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Thermoluminescence was measured at a heating rate of 5 oCs-1(the optimal
value in the tested interval from 1-10 oCs-1). The mass of samples are ranged between 19mg to 25mg, and
the results of TL response were normalized to the masses for each dose.

2
 The samples were subjected to the following ranges of doses; 0.5Gy - 4.0Gy, 5Gy – 10Gy and 10Gy –
100Gy of Co-60 gamma radiations, 0.5 - 4.0Gy of 6 MV X-ray photon radiation and 0.5- 4.0Gy of 6MeV
electron radiation. The doses were controlled by varying the time of the exposure to the radiation.

Table 1 The nominal composition of Na2O co-doped CLB: Cu glass.

Sample Composition (mole %)

No CaCO3 Li2CO3 H3BO3 Cu2O Na2O

CLBCN1 10 10 79.88 0.02 0.1

CLBCN 2 10 10 79.68 0.02 0.3

CLBCN3 10 10 79.48 0.02 0.5

CLBCN 4 10 10 79.28 0.02 0.7

CLBCN 5 10 10 78.98 0.02 1

5500
TL response 0.009
5000 STD% 0.008

0.007
4500
TL respons  (C/g)

0.006
4000 0.005

0.004
STD%

3500
0.003

3000 0.002
0.001
2500
0.000
2000 -0.001
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

Temperature (oC)

Fig.1. Variation of TL response with annealing temperature for CLB: Cu, Na glass.

3
 Fig.2. TL responses at various annealing times for CLB: Cu, Na glass.

3. Result and discussion

3.1. TL response of Na2O co-doped CLB: Cu.

Fig.3. Shows the intensity (µA) of the glow curves for various concentrations of Na2O in CLB: Cu, after
irradiating glass samples of the compositions which listed in Table (1) with 60Co gamma-ray at a dose of
50Gy. The curves are simple with single isolated peaks at approximately 188oC. This shows that Na2O has
shifted the position of established peak by copper in CLB host by 4oC. There is an increase in TL intensity
with varying concentration of Na2O from 0.1mol% to reach the maximum at 0.3mol%, and then decreases
continuously when the doping rates are .5mol% and 0.7mol%, as shown in Fig. 4. The line joining points in
the Fig.4 is for visual reason. Among the tested concentrations of Na2O, 0.3mol% has the highest intensity
of the TL response. Evaluation of TL properties of the improved phosphor is based on the optimized
concentration of Na2O, i.e., CLB:0.02Cu2O, 0.3Na2O (CLB:Cu,Na).

The TL intensity of the optimum concentration of Na2O was enhanced by about 100%

compared to the optimum TL intensity obtained from copper doping. It is suffice to infer that the
introduction of Na2O into the host of CLB has created an additional population of deep and stable traps in
the band gap of the host. This might have been achieved by loosing of an oxygen atom by Na2O and
becoming Na+ cation creating a potential defect that attract more electrons from the valance band. The
electronic structure of sodium is 1s22s22p63s1 [Ne] 3s. This state may enhance electron transfer between
the outer shells of Na to the non-radiative copper ion (Cu++) and cause it to be radiative and release
luminescence in the course of relaxation as shown above. It further suggests a strong cross link between
the extrinsic defect and intrinsic defect of the host (CLB) [1, 16]. Fig.5 illustrates the comparison between
the TL intensity of glow curve for 0.02%Cu doped and 0.3%Na2O co-doped (CLBCN 2), where the TL
intensity of Na2O co-doped is higher than the Cu2O doped.

4
Fig.3. Glow curves of of CLB:Cu,Na with different concentrations of sodium irradiated to 50Gy.

Fig.4. Variation of TL response with different concentrations of sodium.

Fig.5. TL intensity of glow curves for Na co-doped and Cu doped calcium lithium borate.

5
3.2. Dose linearity

The linearity of dose response is one of the key features in thermoluminescence analysis. It is
important to have a linear relationship between the absorbed dose and TL emission spectra. The linear
dose response indicates that the response shown by a TLD is directly proportional to the dose of
irradiation..

3.2.1 TL- Dose response of CLB:Cu,Na glass subjected to 1.25 MeV Co-60 gamma ray

TL dose response of CLB:Cu,Na glass compositions were evaluated over the range of 0.5Gy - 4.0Gy,
5Gy – 10Gy and 10Gy – 100Gy doses of Co-60 gamma radiations. Fig.6 (A- C) shows the variation of TL
response with doses (0.5Gy –4.0Gy), (5-10 Gy) and (10-100 Gy) of gamma radiation for CLB:Cu and
CLB:Cu,Na. The TL response increases linearly with an increase of dose for both TLDs. A fit to the data gives
correlation coefficients (R2) 0.986, 0.966, 0.9719, 0.9929, 0.9893 and 0.9866 within the range of (0.5 -
4.0Gy), (5-10Gy) and (10-100Gy) for CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na respectively. This indicates good linear
dependence of the TL response to the gamma radiation doses. The linearty is an important feature for the
dosimetry application since it ensures accurate estimation of the dose [2]. The result shows that the TL
response of CLB:Cu,Na is greater than that of CLB:Cu.

3.2.2 TL- Dose response of CLB:Cu,Na glass subjected to 6MV X-ray Photon irradiation

TL response of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na Subjected to 6 MV X-ray photon radiation doses within the
range of 0.5 - 4.0Gy are shown comparatively in Fig.7. The correlation coefficients are 0.9894 and 0.9902
for CLB: Cu and CLB:Cu,Na respectively. The linear dependence of the TL response to the X-ray photon
radiation doses by CLB: Cu and CLB:Cu,Na is apparent in Fig.7. However, the TL response of CLB:Cu to X-ray
photon is close to that of CLB:Cu,Na at this range of doses.

3.2.3 TL- Dose response of CLB:Cu,Na glass subjected to 6MeV Electron irradiation

Similar comparison of the TL responses of CLB: Cu and CLB:Cu,Na to 6MeV electron radiation dose
within the range of 0.5- 4.0Gy are illustrated in Fig.8. The linearty of the TL response to the 6MeV electron
radiation doses by CLB: Cu is consereved and the correlation coefficients (R2) 0.9802. The CLB:Cu,Na
composition shows an intersting picture where its TL response has correlation coefficients (R2) 0.9476 as a
global , but its set of data can be divided to two regions of linearity. The first region from (0.5-2)Gy and the
second region is from (2-4)Gy which shows greater change in TL response rate. This behaviour is due to that
the higher doses of electron radiation enhances the rate of creation of electron traps. However, the results
in general show that the TL response of CLB:Cu,Na to electron radiation is greater than that of CLB: Cu at
this range of electron radiation doses.

6
Fig.6.Variation of TL response of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na subjected to (A) 0.5 - 4.0 Gy (B) 5 – 10 Gy (C) 10
– 100 Gy of Co-60 gamma radiation doses.

7
Fig.7. Variation of TL response of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na with (0.5 – 4.0) Gy dose to 6MV photon radiations.

Fig.8. Variation of TL response of CLB: Cu and CLB:Cu,Na with (0.5- 4.0) Gy dose
to 6MeV electron radiations.

8
 For the purpose of comparison the TL responses of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na to varying doses of 0.5- 4.0Gy
from different types of ionizing radiation (Co-60 gamma ray, 6MV X-ray photon and 6MeV electron) were
plotted together and compared in Fig.(9and 10).The results from the graph shows that CLB:Cu and
CLB:Cu,Na glasses have the highest TL response to gamma radiation followed by photon and then electron.
A fit to the data gives correlation coefficient (R2) 0.986, 0.9681 and 0.9802 for CLB:Cu and 0.966,0.947 and
0.994 for CLB:Cu,Na for gamma, photon and electron respectively.

Fig.9. TL response of CLB:Cu subjected to different types of ionizing radiation.

Fig.10. TL response of CLB:Cu,Na glass subjected to different types of ionizing radiations.

9
 The overall result of the TL response to different doses of different source of radiation by both the
glass compositions in this study revealed that there is TL response enhancement by the addition of Na ions
to the Cu doped CLB glasses. On the other hand the TL responses to gamma radiation by both the
compositions are greater than their responses to photon and electron radiations.

3.3. Sensitivity

In the present study, TL sensitivity of the compositions under study for various doses of radiations is
defined as the ratio of the TL response to the mass of the dosimeter and the radiation dose which was
exposed to (µC g-1 Gy-1). It is therefore determined by the slope of the line of fit to the graph of TL intensity
versus dose. The obtained sensitivity values of the different compositions under study are presented in
Table 2.

Comparing the sensitivity of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na glasses shows that CLB:Cu,Na is more sensitive to
both Co-60 gamma and 6MeV electron radiation than CLB:Cu at the same range of dose by a factor of 1.7,
1.71 respectively. On the other hand, this indicated that there is no significant difference between the
sensitivity of CLB: Cu and CLB: Cu, Na glass to 6MV X-ray photon radiations. This further confirmed that the
introduction of Na ions into Cu doped CLB has greatly enhanced the sensitivity of the composition for both
Co-60 gamma and 6MeV electron tested type of radiations at all ranges of dose.

Table 2: Sensitivity of TL response CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na subjected to different types of ionizing
radiations.

TLD Material Energy Range of Dose (Gy) Sensitivity (µC g-1 Gy-1)

0.5 – 4.0 70.838

5 - 10 78.81
1.25 MeV Co-60 gamma
CLB:Cu
10 -100 64.949

6 MV X-ray photon 0.5 – 4.0 54.255

6 MeV electron 0.5 – 4.0 46.215

0.5 – 4.0 120.57

1.25 MeV Co-60 gamma 5 - 10 80.569

CLB:Cu,Na 10 -100 92.323

6 MV X-ray photon 0.5 – 4.0 54.017

10
 6 MeV electron 0.5 – 4.0 79.091

3.4. Reproducibility of TL response

The ability of a dosimeter to be used again after irradiated is also regarded as important features in
dosimetric application. A dosimeter is expected to have good reusability characteristics to be an
economical material and be able to measure radiation dose accurately. Thus, TL signal intensity of a
particular dose should be approximately the same after several measurements. A TL material is expected
not to suffer any physiochemical change due to repeated irradiation, readout and annealing processes [5].
The present compositions under study are subjected to a cycle of irradiation, readout and annealing with
the aim of testing their reusability. Co-60 gamma radiation at a dose of 3Gy, 7Gy and 50Gy is used for this
purpose. The reproducibility characteristics of the compositions were subjected to seven sequential cycles
is displayed in Fig.11.

Fig.11. Repeatability of CLB:Cu,Na glass exposed to 3 Gy, 7Gy and 50Gy Co-60 gamma radiation.

3.5. Thermal fading property

Fading, the loss of stored TL signal following irradiation, occurs to a greater or lesser extent for all TL
materials mainly, depending in large part upon the depth of traps and the storage temperature. TL material is
required to have low fading behavior for accredited result to be obtained. Therefore, fading can be considered
as a quality factor of a dosimeter. The thermal fading of the compositions under study is investigated at 3 Gy
dose of gamma radiation. The tested glass of CLB:Cu,Na exhibited a signal intensity reduction by only 5.6% after
14 days, 14% after 28 days and 25% after 42 days. Incorporating Na 2O impurity into CLB has remarkably
minimized the fading behavior of CLB:Cu. This serves as additional evidence that the addition of sodium in the
host of calcium lithium borate has created more deep and stable traps at all

11
levels. This indicates that the CLB:Cu,Na has a good thermal stability and suitable for long term radiation
dose assessment. The thermal fading characteristics of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na glasses were evaluated, and
the result is shown and compared in Fig.12.The effect of storage time for CLB:Cu,Na glass previously
irradiated with Co-60 gamma ray, 6MeV electron and 6MV photon energies at a dose of 3Gy is shown in
Fig.13.

Fig.12. Residual signal characteristics of CLB:Cu,Na glass compared with CLB:Cu exposed to 3Gy of Co-60 gamma
radiations.

Fig. 13.Residual signal of CLB:Cu,Na glass irradiated with different types of ionizing radiation.

3.6 Optical bleaching

Borate based TL materials are known to be sensitive to light. Even at low temperature the trap
electrons can be optically released, and recombination may take place between electrons and holes,
thereby losing the stored information [14]. Therefore a decrease or lose of TL yield is anticipated when the
proposed TL material is exposed to direct sunlight. It is important to quantify the extent to which this

12
phenomenon happens and recommend the measure to be taken when using the phosphor in the sun light
condition.

The effect of sunlight radiation to CLB:Cu,Na was investigated and presented in Fig.14. This was
performed for the samples that were exposed directly to sunlight after being irradiated to 50Gy gamma
ray. 78% of the stored signal in CLB:Cu,Na was lost after 1h direct exposure to sunlight, 79.5% lost after 3h
and 82% after 6h. It is apparent that the TL intensity for composition decays exponentially with exposure
times as was shown by the fitting curve and afterward kept almost constant under direct sunlight exposure
for 6 h. These results indicate that CLB:Cu,Na glass TLDs needs to be protected from being exposed to
sunlight during radiation dose assessment exercise.

Fig.14. Residual signal characteristics of CLB:Cu,Na exposed to sunlight.

3.7. Minimum detectable dose

The lower limit of detection is important in low dose measurement, where the signal emitted from an
irradiated TLD is almost similar with the background. The minimum detectable dose (MDD) of the present
material was calculated from the following relation [6, 8, 13].

Do = (B* +2σB) .F (1)

Where, Do is the minimum detectable dose, B* is the average background TL of the un-irradiated
dosimeter ,σB is the standard deviation of the background signal, and F is the calibration factor expressed
in Gy µC-1g-1. The average and standard deviation of background signal for five samples were obtained
after reading them without irradiation. The samples were exposed to 3 Gy and TL readings were recorded
in nC. For CLB:Cu,Na glass the average background is 0.4536nC, the standard deviation is 0.01584 and the
calibration factor is 0.0000063950Gy nC-1. Substituting in the equation, its lower level of detection is
3.10µGy.

13
4. Kinetic parameters

The order of kinetics (b) of the acquired glow curve was determined by calculating the geometric shape
factor, defined as:

(2)

Where, µg is the geometric shape factor, Tm, T1, T2 are the maximum temperatures, the temperature of half
intensity at low temperature side and temperature of half intensity at high temperature side, respectively. It is
worth mentioning that the peak positions of the glow curves are at 179 oC, 197 oC and 192 oC for CLB:Cu
subjected to gamma ray ,6MeV electron and 6MV photon, respectively. While for CLB:Cu,Na the peak positions
are at 187oC, 183oC and 193oC. The geometric shape factor (µg) of the glow curves for CLB:Cu were found to be
(0.62, 0.58 and 0.619) , and for CLB:Cu,Na (0.609 , 0.622 and 0.594) respectively, which suggests that the peaks
obey general order of kinetics. The geometric parameters of CLB:Cu and
CLB:Cu,Na is shown in Fig. (15 and 16). Activation energy or trap depth (E) and frequency factor calculated
by using Chen’s equation [4]:
( ) (3)
[ ( ) ] ( ) (4)

Where, β is the rate of heating, K is the Boltzmann constant in eV. γ (is δ ,τ or ω ) and it is a factor that
depends on the glow curve temperature widths, τ = (Tm - T1), δ = (T2 - Tm), ω = (T2 - T1). bγ is a constant that
depends on the order of kinetics and glow curve temperature widths. The Cγ is also a constant that
depends on the order of kinetics and glow curve temperature widths [13].The trapping parameters of the
CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na glasses irradiated with Co-60 gamma ray, 6MeV electron and 6MV photon energies
at dose 3Gy were calculated using the above mentioned equations. The activation energies and the
corresponding frequency factors are listed in Table 3.

14
Fig.15. Geometric parameters of CLB:Cu glow curve for: (A) 3Gy gamma ray, (B) 3Gy Electron 6MeV and
(C) 3Gy Photon 6MV.

Fig.16. Geometric parameters of CLB:Cu,Na glow curve for: (A) 3Gy gamma ray, (B) 3Gy Electron 6MeV
and (C) 3Gy Photon 6MV.

15
Table 3: Activation energy and corresponding frequency factor of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na glass.

TLD Material Energy τ δ ω Mean

value

3Gy gamma E (eV) 0.725 0.646 0.672 0.681

ray1.25MeV
s (s-1) 1.06 x 109 1.68 x108 3.1 x 108 5.13 x 108

3Gy Electron E (eV) 0.560 0.575 0.567 0.5673

6MeV
CLB:Cu s (s-1) 7.50x108 1.43x108 2.44x108 3.79x108

3Gy Photon 6MV E (eV) 0.788 0.696 0.727 0.737

s (s-1) 1.11x109 1.72x108 3.20x108 5.34x108

3Gy gamma E (eV) 0.77 0.684 0.711 0.72166

ray1.25MeV
s (s-1) 2.73 x 109 3.47 x 08 6.44x 108 1.237 x109

CLB:Cu,Na 3Gy Electron E (eV) 0.834 0.720 0.759 0.771

6MeV
s (s-1) 3.04x109 3.70x108 7.00x108 1.37x109

3Gy Photon 6MV E (eV) 0.623 0.609 0.612 0.6146

s (s-1) 2.11x109 3.08x108 5.41x108 9.863x108

5. Photon energy response

The photon energy response S(E) of a phosphor is defined as the ratio of mass energy absorption
coefficient of a material to the mass energy absorption coefficient of a reference material (tissue or air)
[13]. The calculated energy response S(E) and relative energy response (RER)for CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na
are plotted as a function of energy in Fig. 17 and 18. The photon energy response and relative energy
response of CLB:Cu and CLB:Cu,Na normalized to the 1.250MeV (60Co), assumed maximum values at
0.03MeV and relatively flat response over a wide range of energies above 0.1MeV.
( )
( )
(5)

( ) ∑( ) (6)

16
 (7)

Where, wi is the weight fraction of i th constituent elements present in the material. The value (μen / ρ)i
for each element and ( ) is the mass energy absorption coefficient of a reference material that

can be obtained from Table of X-ray mass attenuation coefficients and mass energy –absorption
coefficients by reported elsewhere [10].

Fig.17: Calculated energy dependence of CLB:Cu.

Fig.18: Calculated energy dependence of CLB:Cu,Na.

17
5. Conclusion

Introduction of Na ions as co-dopant to Cu in the host of CLB enhanced the performance of these
phosphors in many aspects, the annealing temperature, annealing time and heating rate remained the
same. The TL intensity of the optimized of CLB:Cu,Na is about 100% better than that of CLB: Cu. With the
addition of Na to CLB: Cu, TL responses at different ranges of doses of gamma radiation (0.5 – 4.0 Gy, 5 -
10Gy and 10 – 100Gy) were remarkably enhanced with negligible difference in degree of linearity. Similarly,
TL response enhancement was observed as Na co-doped CLB: Cu was exposed to (0.5 – 4.0Gy) dose range
of 6MeV electron radiations. Though the sensitivity of CLB: Cu to gamma radiation varies with the range of
doses, co - dopting Na in CLB: Cu has improved the performance of the phosphor to have nearly flat
sensitivity to gamma radiation at all tested ranges of doses (5 – 10 Gy). Na co-dopant changed CLB: Cu
composition from being less sensitive to 6MV X-ray photon and 6MeV electron radiations than to Co-60
gamma radiation. In other words, the sensitivity of CLB: Cu, Na to Co-60 gamma radiation at dose range of
(0.5 – 4.0Gy) is more than its sensitivity to 6MV photon and 6MeV electron radiations by a factor of 2.23
and 1.52 respectively at the same range of dose. This shows that CLB: Cu, Na glass is also more sensitive to
Co-60 gamma radiation than to electron and photon radiation at (0.5 – 4.0Gy) range of doses. With Na ions
in the CLB: Cu matrices the fading characteristics of CLB: Cu was improved from 33 % to only 25 % after 6
weeks period of time. CLB: Cu,Na exhibited highest energy response of 1.829823 and relative energy
response of 1.987454 at 0.03MeV. Above 0.1MeV the response was approximately the same over a wide
range of energies.

The results show that Na2O co-doping of Cu2O -doped calcium lithium borate glass has a potential to
be used as a recommended glass detector in dosimetry.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education and Koya University of Kurdistan
Region - Iraq for the financial support. The authors are also thankful to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
for providing research facilities. They also wish to thank Ahmad Takim Saring for his help in the 60Co
irradiations at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Selangor Malaysia.

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Highlight

  The TL properties and kinetic parameters of CLB:Cu,Na glass have been investigated.
 Ionizing radiations effect on theTL characteristics of CLB:Cu,Na glass was studied.
 The Optical bleaching effects on the new dosimeter.
 The photon energy and relative energy responses of CLB:Cu,Na glass was determined.

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