Study of TL and optically stimulated luminescence of K2Ca2(SO4)3:Cu nanophosphor for radiation dosimetry

Nanocrytstalline K2Ca2(SO4)3:Cu phosphor was synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation method and annealed at different temperatures (400-900 °C) for 2 h. The XRD spectrum shows the cubic structure with crystallite size ~20 nm. The same was also confirmed from the TEM image which shows the formation of nanorods having diameter ~20 nm and length of ~200 nm. They are found to be quite uniform in shapes and sizes. These samples were irradiated with gamma radiation for the doses varying from 0.01 Gy to 10 kGy and their thermoluminescence (TL) characteristics and continuous wave optically stimulated luminescence (CW-OSL) have been studied. The sample annealed at 700 °C was found to be most sensitive than others. The glow curves of the nanophosphor show a major peak at around 175 °C and other two peaks of low intensity at around 85 °C and 305 °C. The traps responsible for the three thermoluminescence peaks in K2Ca2(SO4)3:Cu are also found to be sensitive to the OSL. The qualitative correlation between TL peaks and CW-OSL response is established. The TL response of the sample annealed at 700 °C for 2 h and irradiated with different gamma doses shows a linear behavior from 0.01 up to 300 Gy and become sublinear in the range of 300 Gy-1 kGy before it saturates with further increase in the dose, while, the OSL response of the same sample shows linearity up to 1 kGy. Simple glow curve structure, easy method of synthesis, and linear dose response make the nanocrystalline phosphor a good candidate for radiation dosimetry, especially for the estimation of high doses of gamma rays where the microcrystalline phosphors generally saturate.