Thermoluminescence response of detonation diamond microparticles exposed to beta and alpha radiation

Abstract The thermoluminescence (TL) dosimetric response observed in crystalline synthetic diamonds specimens of different origin has indicated excellent levels of performance as detector and dosimeter concerning high energetic photons and particle beams. In the present work, we report on the photoluminescence and TL characteristics of detonation diamonds microcrystals having 250–300 μm grain size. The high quality of detonation diamond specimens was demonstrated by photoluminescence spectroscopy with 488 nm wavelength excitation, depicting clearly the presence of negative nitrogen-vacancy [NV]− and the neutral nitrogen-vacancy [NV]o center population localized at 1.946 eV and 2.157 eV, respectively as well as a vacancy trapped at dinitrogen (2.47 eV). The TL glow curve shape, repeatability, and thermal fading were studied in samples exposed to alpha and beta irradiation. A linear dose-response was observed in the ranges of 6.6–33 Gy and 13–33 Gy, for alpha and beta irradiations, respectively. The repeatability was determined to be about 2%. The detonation microdiamonds exhibited a TL thermal fading decay of around 50% TL in a 24 h after irradiation at room temperature. A computer glow curve deconvolution process was utilized by assuming four mixed order kinetics overlapped TL peaks to determine their kinetic parameters. The TL glow curve shapes and the kinetics values were comparable irrespective of alpha or beta irradiated samples. The findings reflect that detonation diamond microparticles are suitable material to be used as alpha and beta radiation TL dosimeters.