In the event of large scale public radiation exposures, a means of rapid personal radiation
dosimetry would provide a valuable tool for environmental and human health protection
as well as for possible criminal investigations (in the event of terrorist dirty bombs). This
thesis describes a method of sensitizing synthetic quartz oscillators, found in many
timekeeping devices such as watches and cellular phones, to function as radiation
dosimeters. Experiments on the sensitization of synthetic quartz crystals from watch
oscillators were performed by subjecting the quartz to thermal treatments in the range of
200°C to 800°C. The lengths of treatments ranged from numerous one hour cycles to
week-long single anneal treatments and combinations of the two. All treatments were
designed to mimic factors that are known to cause sensitization in geologic quartz grains
(Botter-Jensen, Larsen et al., 1995). The greatest sensitization was observed in crystals treated to 800°C for one week and then subjected to two series of heating, irradiation, and optical exposures. These crystals were able to recover doses as low as 0.5 Gray at an error within 10% of the
delivered dose. This work is the first stage of development for creating dual purpose
quartz oscillator-dosimeters which could be used in watches, cellular phones, clocks, and
nearly all equipment requiring a timekeeping component. In the future, experiments
should be conducted to show definitively that crystals still function as 32.768 kHz
oscillators after annealing and that oscillators trap charge while in operation. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/21664 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Liberda, Jonathan |
| Contributors | Rink, W., Bareham, Douglas, Earth Sciences |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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