The investigation of fading in thermoluminescence peak intensities of synthetic quartz crystals under the different conditions

Thermoluminescence (TL) is the thermally stimulated emission of light from an insulator or a semiconductor following the absorption of energy in different processes, usually from ionizing radiation. Fading is the process in which there is unintentional loss of the latent information, that is, its response. There are many causes of the process of fading, but the thermal is the main one. In the thermal fading, the traps that present lower entrapment energy will fade faster than the more energetic ones, due to their higher probability of transition. This can generate large errors in the dose assessment. One of the materials used to observe the thermoluminescence event is quartz crystal. In this study, the fading of thermoluminescence peak intensities were surveyed in three different environments which are dark ambient, tungsten light and fluorescent light by using two different synthetic quartz crystals.Key Words: Thermoluminescence, fading, quartz crystal