Radiation-induced defects in strontium carbonate rod for EPR dosimetry applications

The radiation-induced defects in strontium carbonate (SrCO3) rod dosimeter in the dose range of 2.5 Gy-25 kGy was investigated using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) technique. The EPR spectra of γ-irradiated strontium carbonate (SC) rods exhibit a strong EPR signal with the spectroscopic splitting g-factor 2.008 and a weak signal at g-factor 2.003. This signal increases with increasing irradiation dose. The dose-response function has a good linearity in the low dose range of 2.5-500 Gy and slight sub-linearity in the high dose range of 0.5-25 kGy. The dosimeter is nearly humidity independent in the level of 33-77% relative humidity during irradiation. The temperature coefficient of the dose-response function is 0.22% per °C in the temperature range of 20-40 °C. The rod dosimeter exhibits a maximum deviation from water equivalency by 7% in the energy range of 0.3-5 MeV. The overall uncertainty of dose determination using SC dosimeter is 5.2% and 4.54% (2σ) for low and high dose range, respectively.