ABSTRACT
Ionizing radiation plays a crucial role in the fields of medicine, engineering, science and technology, and research and agriculture. Controlled use of ionizing radiation, with the adoption of recommended safety procedures, has led to wide applications of ionizing radiation in various fields. Adoption of radiation safety norms has led to harnessing the power of the atom for various technological applications. One of the most important, peaceful applications of nuclear energy is in power generation. However, indiscriminate use of ionizing radiation, that is, without adhering to proper safety procedures, may lead to excessive radiation exposure of radiation workers, which may be hazardous to their health. People who receive relatively high doses of radiation could have a 406greater risk of developing cancer later in life, depending on the level of radiation exposure. Therefore, monitoring radiation exposure of occupational workers is a mandatory requirement from national as well as international regulations. A dosimeter is used for this purpose. A dosimeter is a small radiation detection device worn by an individual, used to measure doses of ionizing radiation. Radiation dosimeters/detectors are of two types, active and passive. A passive dosimeter is a device that is used to record personal exposure to radiation (and sometimes environmental exposure), whereas an active dosimeter provides a real-time instant measure of dose accrued and dose rate. Among the active detectors are gaseous detectors (ionization chambers, Geiger-Muller [GM] counters, etc.), solid-state detectors (scintillation and semiconductor detectors), etc., whereas among the passive detectors are thermoluminescent, optically stimulated luminescent, radiophotoluminescent (RPL), and photographic film-based detectors. TL materials are useful in dosimetry applications of ionizing radiations due to availability of various types of TLDs, in different physical forms and sizes, in large numbers with high sensitivity, low photon energy, and angular dependence, wide dynamic dose response, low postirradiation fading, etc. Since the 1950s, there has been extensive research on thermoluminescence (TL) and its application in radiation dosimetry. This research, which was only widely applied beginning in the 1970s, guided the development of thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs), which are now the most commonly used type of dosimeter around the world for personnel monitoring applications in particular. This paper is solely devoted to the stimulating aspects of TL and the related concepts.
