Response of Some Thermoluminescent Detectors to Alpha Particles with Energies from 2.5 to 5 MeV

The response of some thermoluminescent detectors (TLD) to alpha particles with energies between 2.5 and 5 MeV has been established. 7LiF, CaSO4:Dy, alumophosphate glass and two types of Al2O3 were studied. It was found that the relative light conversion factor in this region depends only slightly on the alpha particle energy. It is smallest in the case of Al2O3 monocrystalline detectors, generally lower than 0.1. On the other hand, Al2O3 in the form of sintered discs manufactured by CEC in France exhibits the highest relative light conversion factor. For all alpha energies studied, this factor is, for this type of Al2O3 mostly higher than 1.0, i.e. energy deposition is more efficient in TL simulation than photon energy deposition. As far as other TLDs studied are concerned, their relative light conversion factors are of the order of 0.1. This behaviour corresponds well to our previous results concerning fast neutron and proton responses of all TLDs studied.