Optical and radiation response characteristics of Eu2O3-doped K2O–Bi2O3–Ga2O3 glasses

Abstract Glass compounds have gained attention as scintillating materials owing to their large production possibility, easy shaping and flexible glass composition, and various glasses such as silicate, germanate and borate glasses have been considered for scintillator applications. Herein, Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses having a composition of 5K2O–70Bi2O3–25Ga2O3 were synthesized for the development of new glass scintillators by the melt-quenching method. After the fabrication of the undoped and Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses, their optical and scintillation characteristics were evaluated. The Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses showed photoluminescence (PL) and scintillation with sharp peaks centered at approximately 596 and 612 nm due to the electronic 4f → 4f transitions of Eu3+. The PL and scintillation spectra revealed that the concentration dependence of the PL quantum efficiency for the Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses was well correlated with that of the scintillation intensity. The decay time constants of the 0.5% and 1.0% Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses under visible light and X-ray irradiation were approximately 0.55 ms and 0.15 ms, respectively. In addition, the undoped and Eu2O3-doped bismuth gallate glasses exhibited afterglow levels of 330–660 ppm, and their moderate levels were found to be almost comparable to the afterglow level of Tl-doped CsI.