OSL signal of lithium fluoride and its relationship with TL glow-curves

• LiF:Mg,Cu,P and LiF:Mg,Ti show substantial OSL sensitivity.
• LiF:Mg,Cu,P OSL sensitivity significantly exceeds that of BeO.
• OSL is correlated with peak 2 of TL glow-curves.
• LiF:Mg,Ti peak 2 seems to have a composite structure being only partly light-sensitive.

The widely known LiF TL detectors: LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-N) and LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-N), were investigated with respect to their OSL properties. It was found that both materials exhibit quite substantial OSL sensitivity. In particular, in the case of LiF:Mg,Cu,P this sensitivity was very high, significantly exceeding that of BeO, the standard OSL dosimetric material. LiF:Mg,Cu,P could be a very promising candidate for application in dosimetry, if not for the fading, which was found to be quite high, reaching nearly 80% loss of the signal within 60 h. The OSL signal intensity shows a correlation with the peak 2 of the TL glow curves indicating that the same trapping sites are responsible for both processes. Peak 2 of LiF:Mg,Ti shows a peculiar property, that blue light stimulation removes only about half of its initial intensity, disregarding the duration of stimulation. This suggests, that this peak may have a composite structure and originates from both light-sensitive and light-insensitive trapping centres.