Abstract
Background: The retrospective dosimetry using RTL quartz can be improved by information for an optical sensitivity of sample connected with the equivalent dose determination. Materials and Methods: The quartz sample from a volcanic rock of Japan was used. After correcting the thermal quenching effect, RTL peaks of quartz were separated by the CGCD method cooperated with the general order kinetics. The number of overlapped glow peaks were ascertained by the $T_m-T_{stop}$ method. The optical sensitivity was examined by comparing the change of intensity on RTL glow peaks measured after exposure to light from a solar simulator with various illumination times. Results and Discussion: Seven glow peaks appeared to be overlapped on the RTL glow curve. The general order kinetics model was appropriate to separate glow peaks. After exposure to light from a solar simulator from a few minutes to 416 hr, the signals for peaks P4 and P5 decayed following the form of $f(t)=a_1e^{-{\lambda}1t}$, while the signals for peaks P6 and P7 decayed by the form of $f(t) = a_1e^{-{\lambda}1t}+a_2e^{-{\lambda}2t}+a_3e^{-{\lambda}3t}$. Conclusion: For dosimetric peaks, the times taken to reduce the RTL signal to half of its initial value were 70 sec for the peak P4, 54 s for the peak P5, 9,840 sec for the peak P6 and 26,580 sec for the peak P7, respectively. We conclude that the optical sensitivity of peaks P4, and P5 gives much higher than that of peaks P6 and P7.