Amorphous and crystalline optical materials used as instruments for high gamma radiation doses estimations

• The damage induced by gamma rays to optical materials was highlighted and quantified, using laser techniques.
• Polarized light and the particularities of the laser light (monochromaticity, directionality and coherence) were used.
• The correlation between the damage and the gamma rays absorbed dose was made.
• The comparison between different types of optical materials and their dose related calibrations were made.
• The uncertainty associated to the technique was determined.

Nuclear radiation induce some changes to the structure of exposed materials. The main effect of ionizing radiation when interacting with optical materials is the occurrence of color centers, which are quantitatively proportional to the up-taken doses. In this paper, a relation between browning effect magnitude and dose values was found. Using this relation, the estimation of a gamma radiation dose can be done. By using two types of laser wavelengths (532 nm and 633 nm), the optical powers transmitted thru glass samples irradiated to different doses between 0 and 59.1 kGy, were measured and the associated optical browning densities were determined. The use of laser light gives the opportunity of using its particularities: monochromaticity, directionality and coherence. Polarized light was also used for enhancing measurements quality. These preliminary results bring the opportunity of using glasses as detectors for the estimation of the dose in a certain point in space and for certain energy, especially in particles accelerators experiments, where the occurred nuclear reactions are involving the presence of high gamma rays fields.