Design and implementation of an open-source optically stimulated luminescence measurement system

2017
Maraba, Diren
Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) is the light emission from an irradiated solid (insulator or a wide band gap semiconductor) upon illumination with light of suitable wavelength. Although the phenomenon has been known for a long time, OSL has emerged as a practically applicable dosimetry technique in the past two decades. Recently introduced materials like alumina and beryllia have found use in the field of radiation dosimetry. The purpose of this study is to design and construct a simple multi-sample OSL measurement system. The device is realized using open-source hardware and software platforms which reduced the development costs to very low levels. The system is able to measure OSL from materials relevant for dosimetry and dating. The measurement system is based on the Arduino DUE microcontroller board. The control of the sample positioning mechanism, stimulation system, precise timing and photon counting is achieved using this board. The control software on the client computer is written in Python language which can be run on any platform. The stimulation system is based on high power light emitting diode (LED) in visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and three commonly used stimulation modes, continuous wave (CW-), linearly modulated (LM-) and time-resolved (TR-) OSL modes are achievable. Luminescence emission is measured using a bialkali photomutiplier tube (PMT) module which works in photon counting mode and produces pulses as output. The pulses from the PMT module is counted using a fast timer counter of the microcontroller. The optical characteristics of system is measured and presented. In addition, the OSL measurement system is tested using materials such as Al2O3:C, BeO, Quartz, ZrSiO4, which are used for dosimetry and dating studies. 

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Citation Formats
D. Maraba, “Design and implementation of an open-source optically stimulated luminescence measurement system,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2017.