Luminescence and scintillation of Eu²⁺‐doped high silica glass

Abstract

Abstract High silica glass doped with Eu 2+ ions was prepared as a scintillating material by impregnation of Eu ions into a porous silica glass followed by reduction sintering in CO atmosphere. A dominant emission band of the Eu 2+ 5d–4f transition peaking around 430 nm was observed in the luminescence spectrum with the excitation peak around 280 nm and no emission from Eu 3+ was present. Photoluminescence decay kinetics was governed by decay times of a few microseconds. The Eu 2+ ‐doped high silica glass exhibited comparable energy resolution and slightly higher photoelectron yield with respect to the Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 crystal in the pulse height spectra for X‐ray photon energies within 22–60 keV. Furthermore, a factor of 1.2 higher radioluminescence intensity was observed as well. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)