Luminescence properties of Nd₂O₃-doped gadolinium-borate glass scintillators

Glass scintillators have good radiation hardness and high chemical and thermal resistance. Therefore, glass scintillators are suitable for use in the high-energy physics, nuclear power, and so on. Because the fabrication of glass scintillators is not difficult, adding various dopants is easy. Thus, we doped rare-earth elements in glass scintillators in order to increase their luminescence properties. In this study, we used Nd₂O₃-doped glass scintillators with a formula of (55-x)B₂O₃:25Gd₂O₃:10SiO₂:10CaO:xNd₂O₃ (x: 0.05 ∼2.50 mol%). We measured the absorption spectrum, the X-ray-induced emission spectrum, and the photoluminescence of Nd₂O₃-doped gadolinium-borate glass scintillators. The absorption spectrum followed the f-f transition of Nd³⁺ ions. In the X-ray-induced emission spectrum, an emission peak was observed at 890 nm. The photon emission peaks are 800 nm and 890 nm, and excitation peaks are 542 nm, 592 nm and 653 nm.