Ce3+ doped borophosphate scintillating glass for high spatial resolution synchrotron x-rays imaging application

초록

Ce3+-doped borophosphate glasses were synthesized using the conventional melt-quenching technique. Their physical, optical, luminescent, and scintillation properties were systematically investigated. The incorporation of CeF3 led to an increase in both density and refractive index. The glasses exhibited strong absorption in the ultraviolet (UV) region. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements under direct excitation of Ce3+ ions showed intense emissions in the range of 340-346 nm, attributed to the 5d -> 4f transitions. Among the samples, the glass doped with 0.50 mol% CeF3 displayed the highest PL intensity, beyond which a concentration quenching effect was observed. Radioluminescence (RL) spectra showed a similar emission pattern to PL, with the 0.50 mol% CeF3-doped glass achieving the integral scintillation efficiency of similar to 47 % and 45 % relative to SC101 glass and BGO crystal. This glass also exhibits the highest photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) at 52 %. Moreover, short PL and scintillation decay time similar to 20 ns of glass revealed its potential fast response for X-ray radiation detection. Alpha particle excitation was also used to evaluate the pulse height spectrum. Importantly, the glass demonstrated a modulation transfer function (MTF) value of 22.93 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm) at a contrast level of 0.2, indicating its obtained spatial resolution. These results suggest that Ce3+-doped borophosphate glass is a promising candidate for use as a scintillator in X-ray imaging systems.

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