Can Ammonium Tartrate Replace alanine in EPR Radiation Dosimetry?

Radiation dosimetry using EPR is one of the most recent and accurate techniques which is characterized by non-destructive evaluation of the radiation-induced radicals. Alanine was considered as the reference EPR dosimeter for several applications over decades due to its consistent response and the stability of its radiation-induced radicals. Ammonium tartrate was proposed as an EPR promising dosimeter as it possesses several prominent dosimetric features.

In this work, ammonium tartrate is being investigated as a possible alternative to alanine. Studied properties included the sensitivity to different radiation doses, energy dependence, detection limit, and the stability of the induced radicals. Response to Cs-137 gamma radiation was studies over two ranges, the first range from 47 to 2500 Gy, and the second one range from 1.46 to 87.8 Gy and was compared to alanine. Uncertainties associated to the evaluated radiation doses using EPR/ ammonium tartrate dosimetry system were evaluated and presented in details.