Enhanced sensitivity of alanine dosimeters to low-energy X-rays: Preliminary results

In this work, the response or sensitivity of L-alanine minidosimeters to low-energy photons was enhanced through the addition of iodine atoms in the form of KI, which is considered as a dopant. L-alanine minidosimeters with four different content of dopant (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%) were produced and irradiated with 30 Gy to X-ray beams of 80, 120, 250 kV and 10 MV. A Co60 beam was also used for the normalization of the energy response. The EPR measurements were carried out using a K-Band (24 GHz) spectrometer. The results showed a maximum response around 40–50 keV for the doped minidosimeters. This maximum increases with the dopant content 2.2, 3.4 and 4.5 times for 5%, 10% and 15% KI, respectively, with respect to the response of the Co60 irradiated undoped minidosimeter. This result can be explained by the presence of the iodine atom that would increase the probability of photoelectric absorption due to its K  -absorption edge (∼33keV).