Dosimetric properties of gammaand electron-irradiated commercial window glasses

Abstract

The interactions of photons (γ and X rays) and high energy electrons produce with glass mainly ionization and excitation, but also cause a certain amount of atomic displacement depending on the energy of the radiation. The displacement of lattice atoms and/or electron defects and production of electron-hole pairs, which may be individually trapped at various defect sites in the glass structure, imply changes in the valence state of lattice atoms or inclusion of impurity atoms in glass. Some of the modified electronic configurations or defects cause preferential light absorption; the glass thus becomes coloured, and hence these defects are called “colour centres”. These centres are of many types and depend on the glass components and have associated characteristic optical absorption bands and ESR spectra. The radiation-induced colour centres in some commercial glasses have been found suitable for radiation dosimetry [2, 9, 13]. The use of glass samples as radiation dosimeters presents some advantages that make them attractive for the scope: they are recyclable (a thermal treatment at 300°C for time > 20 min is enough for Dosimetric properties of gammaand electron-irradiated commercial window glasses Piergiorgio Fuochi, Ugo Corda, Marco Lavalle, Andras Kovacs, Marika Baranyai, Arbi Mejri, Khaled Farah