On application of low doses from beta radiation source in OSL retrospective dosimetry

• Adjustment of dose rate from single Sr-90/Y-90 beta source is discussed.
• Availability of dose rates from a few to hundreds of mGy/s is demonstrated.
• The method for determining time lag in opening the source is presented.
• Correction for irradiations shorter than 30 s is proposed.

The paper reports on three levels of dose rates obtainable from single beta source: (133±3) mGy/s, (17.8±0.3) mGy/s and (1.94±0.04) mGy/s, as calibrated for quartz sand grains. These values were achieved for different attenuation stages of beta radiation emitted by standard 90Sr/90Y source with the nominal activity of 1.48 GBq attached to an automatic luminescence reader. Lower dose rates give opportunity for exact dosing, which is especially required in luminescence dating applied to young samples as well as in environmental dosimetry. Moreover new method for determining time lag in opening the source in the Riso beta irradiator is presented. This allowed to resolve the contradiction appearing in the literature. The time delay was found to be (0.15±0.01) s per single irradiation. For improving accuracy the dose rate correction is suggest to be taken into account for irradiations shorter than 30 s.