A broad-range yttrium aluminum perovskite-based dosimeter

Among the properties of the hard glass-like scintillator yttrium aluminum perovskite (YAlO/sub 3/:Ce/sup 3+/) relevant for dosimetry are its rapid dominant bright decay, with low afterglow, and its mechanical ruggedness. Our recent success with YAP-based /spl alpha/-, /spl beta/-, /spl gamma/-, and X-ray detectors has encouraged us to attempt to construct a broad-range miniature YAP-based dosimeter. YAP's dominant Compton cross section makes its response relatively energy independent and so it is a promising detector phosphor for accurately measuring exposure, equivalent, and absorbed radiation doses. Further, YAP's stopping power and speed allow our dosimeter to operate over more than five decades of exposure doses using a single small crystal. For even modest radiation fields we can measure doses with good statistical precision in a few seconds. In implementing our broad-range precise YAP-based dosimeter we have used spectrometric signal processing and a measured absorbed energy correction algorithm which provides the possibility to further reduce our measured dose energy dependence over the full energy range. To extend our dosimeter range downward, we are constructing a combination YAP-plastic scintillator.<
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