Thermoluminescence (TL) properties of Al2O3: C, Mg exposed to cobalt-60 gamma radiation doses

• TL properties of Al2O3:C0.1% mol, Mg(0.1 and 0.2 mol%) were investigated.
• The samples were irradiated to Co-60 gamma with doses 0.5–70 Gy.
• The sample with 0.2 mol% Mg has better TL properties compared to 0.1 mol% Mg.

TL characteristics of powder form of Al2O3 doped with 0.1 mol% carbon and co-doped with different magnesium concentrations of 0.1 mol% and 0.2 mol% exposed to Cobalt-60 gamma ray at doses ranging from 5 Gy to 70 Gy were investigated. The recorded glow curves consist a dominant peak at 180 °C for a heating rate of 1 °C s−1. The TL sample with 0.2 mol% Mg concentration have higher response compared to the sample with 0.1 mol% Mg concentration for a delivered dose of 5 Gy. The TL response has linear relationship with delivered dose for both samples. The TL sensitivity was found as 277.9 nC mg−1 Gy−1 for the sample with Mg concentration 0.2 mol% and 128.2 nC mg−1 Gy−1 for 0.1 mol% Mg. However, the sample with 0.1 mol% Mg concentration has better fading properties compared to the sample with 0.2 mol% Mg concentration. Both samples show good reproducibility with value less than 13%. The experimental value of effective atomic number, Zeff is 9.21 and 9.44 for the sample with Mg concentration 0.1% mol and 0.2% mol, respectively, which are near to Zeff of bone with a value of about 11.6.