Department of Medical Physics seminar with Paul A. Jursinec, PhD, Director of Physics, West Michigan Cancer Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLDs) are plastic discs infused with aluminum oxide doped with carbon (Al2O3:C).  These discs are encased in a light tight plastic holder.  Crystals of Al2O3:C, when exposed to ionizing radiation ,store energy that is released as luminescence (420 nm) when the OSLD is illuminated with stimulation light (540 nm). 

The intensity of the luminescence depends on the dose absorbed by the OSLD and the intensity of the stimulation light. OSLDs used in this work were NanoDot dosimeters, which were read with a MicroStar reader (Landauer, Inc., Glenwood, Ill.).