Luminescence detectors at a laser-based electron accelerator

This work presents the first measurement of the radiation field at the Allegra Laser for Acceleration (ALFA) at the ELI Beamlines laser-driven user facility. During the commissioning of ALFA laser pulses (<20 fs, 1 kHz, 1.5 TW) were carefully focused inside supersonic gas targets to generate an ultra-short (fs) ultra-relativistic (10 s of MeV) electron beam. The radiation field produced was pulsed, mixed, and with high instantaneous fluxes and high dose rates. While new dosimetric techniques are being developed, important efforts are being made to investigate the behavior of known dosimetry systems at laser accelerators. The secondary radiation field at ALFA was here characterized using a combination of different solid-state dosimetric systems: optically stimulated luminescence, thermoluminesce, and radiophotoluminescence dosimeters. Luminescence dosimeters offer several advantages for these applications. They are robust and relatively inexpensive. They can be easily adapted to be placed in vacuum and comply with clean room environment: important aspects when laser optics are involved. Compared to active systems, there are no electronics that require shielding from electromagnetic pulses present at laser-driven accelerators. This contribution presents the obtained experimental data focusing on the different detector responses and their suitability for measurements at laser-driven accelerators.