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In this study, the thermoluminescence (TL) characteristics of Ag-doped and undoped lithium tetraborate (Li2 B4 O7 , LTB) materials, grown using the Czochralski method, were reported. The TL properties of LTB:Ag, such as glow curve structure, dose response, fading and reproducibility, were investigated. The glow curve of the Li2 B4 O7 :Ag single crystal consists of four peaks located at approximately 75, 130, 190 and 275°C; in undoped LTB, the single crystal shows a broad glow curve with peaks at 65, 90, 125, 160 and 190°C using a heating rate of 5°C/s in the 50-350°C temperature region. The high temperature peak of Ag-doped sample at 275°C has a nonlinear dose response within the range from 33 mGy to 9 Gy. There is a linear response in the range of 33-800 mGy; after which, a sublinear region appears up to 9 Gy for Ag-doped LTB single crystal. For undoped single crystal, the dose response is supralinear for low doses and linear for the region between 1 and 9 Gy. The thermal fading ratio of the undoped material is almost 60% for the high temperature peak after 7 days. Ag-doped LTB single crystal exhibits different behaviour over a period of 7 days.

Thermally stimulated luminescence glow curves of CaB4O7:Dy samples after β-irradiation showed glow peaks at ~335, 530 and 675 K, with a heating rate of 2 K/s. The main peak at 530 K was analyzed using the Tmax-Tstop method and was found to be composed of at least five overlapping glow peaks. A curve-fitting program was used to perform computer- ized glow curve deconvolution (CGCD) analysis of the complex peak of the dosimetric material of interest. The kinetic param- eters, namely activation energy (E) and frequency factor (s), associated with the main glow peak of CaB4O7:Dy at 520 K were evaluated using peak shape (PS) and isothermal luminescence decay (ILD) methods. In addition, the kinetics was determined to be first order (b =1) by applying the additive dose method. The activation energies and frequency factors obtained using PS and ILD methods are calculated to be 0.72 and 0.72 eV and 8.76 × 10 5 and 1.44 × 10 6 /s, respectively. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.