Two-dimensional thermoluminescence method for checking LiF crystals homogeneity

Thermoluminescence (TL), being one of the common luminescence methods, is very sensitive to the presence of any impurities in the material structure and can be used for the detection of impurity distribution in the bulk of the crystal. If in a TL reader a CCD camera is used, a measurement of TL signal would give us an unique two-dimensional (2-D) imaging of TL signal distribution, and thereby the distribution of dopants. The possibility of the application of 2-D TL method for the control of uniformity of the crystal related to dopant distribution in the volume of the bulk crystal was tested on the large area samples of LiF doped and un-doped crystals grown by Czochralski method at the IFJ PAN in Kraków. The special TL reader with a CCD camera was used for analyzing of luminescence emitting during the heating of the irradiated in uniform radiation field slices of crystals cut longitudinal and perpendicular to the growth axis and for analyzing of the shape of TL glow curves for selected crystal areas. Non-uniform distribution of the dopants was demonstrated for doped crystal grown with relatively slow growth rate.