The relative efficiency of 7LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-7) and 7LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-7) thermoluminescent detectors for muons, pions and kaons over a broad energy range (2 keV–1 GeV): theoretical calculations using the Microdosimetric d(z) Model

The relative efficiency of the two most commonly used 7LiF:Mg,Ti (MTS-7) and 7LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-7) thermoluminescent detectors was calculated using the Microdosimetric d(z) Model for negative muons, positive muons, negative pions, positive pions, negative kaons, positive kaons and neutral kaons with energies spanning from 2 keV to 1 GeV. The needed microdosimetric specific energy probability density distributions were obtained by performing Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations using the computer code PHITS in the optimal 40 nm site size. The obtained efficiency values were found to be strongly affected by the particle type, its energy and the detector, ranging from 0.25 to 1.08. Possible correlations with average microdosimetric quantities such as the frequency- and dose-mean specific energy were discussed in detail. Finally, the effect of including the nominal dopant concentrations in the simulations used for the assessment of the microdosimetric spectra was proven to play a marginal role in the computation of the relative efficiency values, in agreement with what was found in previous studies for ions, photons, electrons, positrons and mixed particle fields.