Personnel Dosimetry Using LiF:Mg,Cu,P

Significant advances have been made in recent years in the development of new and improved thermoluminescent (TL) materials for applications in personnel and environmental dosimetry. One of the most promising new TL materials is LiF:Mg,Cu,P. This paper provides an up-to-date review of the main dosimetric properties of LiF:Mg,Cu,P, emphasising recent improvements in the preparation of this material. An attempt is made to focus on the TL characteristics that are particularly useful for personnel monitoring, although most are relevant to environmental dosimetry as well. Advantages of LiF:Mg,Cu,P include high sensitivity as compared to LiF:Mg,Ti, almost flat photon energy response, low fading rate and linear dose response. The lack of supralinearity at higher dose levels is particularly useful for accident dosimetry, and eliminates the source of error usually associated with the application of supralinearity corrections. The main drawbacks are still the relatively high residual signal and the loss of sensitivity for high readout temperatures. This does not limit the usefulness of LiF:Mg,Cu,P for low dose levels typical to personnel or environmental dosimetry, but may be a limiting factor for high dose applications such as clinical dosimetry.