This document describes rules for the procedures, applications, and systems of thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) for dose measurements according to the probe method. It is particularly applicable to solid "TL detectors", i.e. rods, chips, and microcubes, made from LiF:Mg,Ti or LiF:Mg,Cu,P in crystalline or polycrystalline form. It is not applicable to LiF powders because their use requires special procedures. The probe method encompasses the arrangement, particularly in a water phantom or in a tissue-equivalent phantom, of single TL detectors or of "TL probes", i.e. sets of TL detectors arranged in thin-walled polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) casings.
The purpose of these rules is to guarantee the reliability and the accuracy indispensable in clinical dosimetry when applied on or in the patient or phantom. This document applies to dosimetry in teletherapy with both photon radiation from 20 keV to 50 MeV and electron radiation from 4 MeV to 25 MeV, as well as in brachytherapy with photon-emitting radionuclides. These applications are complementary to the use of ionization chambers.
