Investigation of thermoluminescence glow curves in quartz extracted from the Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

Abstract

The current study investigated the thermoluminescence (TL) properties of milky quartz samples collected from the Central Eastern Desert, Egypt. The crystallinity and the elemental concentrations of the milky quartz samples were examined using X-ray diffraction and an atomic absorption spectrometer. Samples were irradiated using a gamma source at different doses from 250 mGy up to 2 kGy. For annealing, the samples were heated at 400°C for 1 h, followed by slow cooling. Kinetic analyses for the TL glow curves were performed using new designed TL deconvolution software. The glow curves were composed of six overlapped trapping sites at 428, 468, 498, 545, 586, and 639 K. The samples also displayed a linear dose-response from 0.25 Gy up to 20 Gy and a supralinear response from 20 Gy up to 200 Gy. The samples exhibited very low sensitivity for gamma radiation compared with LiF and the minimum detectable dose was 545 μGy. From its linear nature, it was observed that the sensitivity had changed. This study recommends starting measurements of these milky quartz samples after 4 days to give established measurements.