Dose-rate estimation using α-Al2O3:C chips: aftermath

Kreutzer, S., Tribolo, C., Martin, L. and Mercier, N. (2020) Dose-rate estimation using α-Al2O3:C chips: aftermath. Ancient TL, 38(1), pp. 1-10.

Abstract

We present additional experiments for α-Al2O3:C chips used to estimate in situ g-dose rates. Our contribution supplements the article by Kreutzer et al. (2018) and presents results from previously announced follow-up experiments. (1) We investigate the divergent g-dose rate results we obtained from cross-check experiments for one reference site. (2) We discuss the origin of encountered large inter-aliquot scatter using results from low-level background and calibration measurements. (3) We show that the chip geometries vary considerably, which may partly contribute to additional inter-aliquot scatter, regardless of an overall good reproducibility of results. (4) We report new source-calibration results after replacing the b-source housing of our measurement system, which resulted in an increase of the source dose rate at the sample position by ca 37%. GEANT4 simulations show that the increased dose rate is likely caused by an unfortunate fabrication tolerance of the shutter in front of the b-source, which, in combination with the chip geometry, significantly contributes to the observed inter-aliquot scatter. (5) Finally, we introduce a newly developed shiny application we use at the IRAMAT-CRP2A to analyse α-Al2O3:C measurements. The application is open-source and freely available.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Dosimetry, Al2O3:C, luminescence.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Martin, Dr Loic
• Authors: Kreutzer, S., Tribolo, C., Martin, L., and Mercier, N.
• Subjects: C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology; Q Science > QC Physics; Q Science > QE Geology
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
• Journal Name: Ancient TL
• Publisher: Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences University of Wales, Aberystwyth
• ISSN: 0735-1348
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Ancient TL 38(1): 1-10
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License