Advancements in accuracy of the alanine EPR dosimetry system

High stability of the radiation-induced radicals in alanine and the high reproducibility of alanine response to radiation make it possible to determine radiation doses accurately with Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectral analysis. Small uncontrollable variations of the EPR spectrometer sensitivity, however, can significantly deteriorate the accuracy of the method. The errors due to these variations I-an be eliminated or markedly decreased if an adjacent reference sample (such as a synthetic ruby crystal) is permanently present in the cavity, and if ratios of the alanine and ruby signal amplitudes are used throughout the dosimetric session instead of the absolute alanine amplitudes. This paper addresses methodological aspects of using such adjacent reference samples in alanine dosimetry and provides illustrations of the usefulness of this technique. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.