The main purpose of this study was to implement EBT3 dosimetry in the proton low-energy radiobiology line of the TOP-IMPLART accelerator, having a maximum energy of 7 MeV. Low-energy proton and (60)Co calibrated sources were used to investigate the behavior of film response vs to be written in italicum dose. The calibration in 5 MeV protons is currently used for dose assessment in the radiobiological experiments at the TOP-IMPLART accelerator carried out at that energy value.

The complex refractive index of a LiF crystal surface layer irradiated by low-energy electrons is modified by the stable formation of color centers embedded in it. A simplified dipole-electromagnetic field interaction model has been adopted in order to estimate the dispersion curves of colored LiF from a single optical transmittance measurement. The excellent agreement with the corresponding experimental curves (obtained by means of spectrophotometry and ellipsometry) demonstrates this to be a promising approach for LiF-based optical waveguide characterization.

Fluorescent patterns with submicron dimensions have been obtained by creating stable F3+ and F2 color centers in LiF films using a focused x-ray beam provided at the ELETTRA synchrotron radiation facility. The patterns were written by scanning the LiF specimen with respect to the x-ray microprobe. In these attempts, using an x-ray microspot with a diameter of 100 nm and a flux density ⩾109 photons/s, we generated ∼500-nm-wide lines efficiently emitting in the visible spectral region when excited by blue light at 458 nm. Preliminary results indicate that the spectral distribution of the emitted luminescence can be changed by varying the photon dose delivered to the sample.

A technique using soft x-rays and extreme ultraviolet light generated by a laser-plasma source has been investigated for producing low-dimensionality photoluminescent patterns based on active color centers in lithium fluoride (LiF) crystals. Strong visible photoluminescence at room temperature has been observed in LiF crystals from fluorescent patterns obtained by masking the incoming radiation. This technique is able to produce colored patterns with high spatial resolution on large areas and in short exposure times as compared with other coloration methods.

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