Luminescence property of rare-earth-doped bismuth-borate glasses with different concentrations of bismuth and rare-earth material

Bismuth-borate glass scintillators have high density and good radiation hardness. Thus, if they are highly luminescent, they can be applied in astrophysics, high-energy and nuclear physics, homeland security, radiation detection and medical imaging. Bismuth-borate glasseswith the formula xBi ₂O ₃:(100 - x)B ₂O ₃ (x = 30, 50, and 66. 7 mol%) were fabricated and doped with Nd, Er, Dy, Pr, Sm, Ho, Gd, and Ce in different dopant concentrations by using the melt-quenching technique. The X-ray emission spectra for the bismuth-borate glasses were measured and showed that only Sm-, Dy-, and Nd-doped glass scintillators had noticeable luminescence. Also, we measured the photo-luminescence and the proton-induced emission spectra. We obtained the result that Sm- and Dy- doped glass scintillators emitted luminescence. The emission peaks of the Sm- doped glass were 569, 598, 641, and 708 nm and were due to ( ⁴G _5/2 → ⁶H _J) (J = 5/2, 7/2, 9/2, 11/2) transitions, respectively. The emission peaks of the Dy- doped glass were at 485 nm ( ⁴F _9/2 → ⁶H _15/2), 575 nm ( ⁴F _9/2 → ⁶H _13/2), 660 nm ( ⁴F _9/2 → ⁶H _11/2), and 755 nm ( ⁴F _9/2 → ⁶H _9/2 + ⁶H _11/2), and that of the Nd-doped glass was at 895 nm due to the ( ⁴F _3/2 → ⁴I _9/2) transition. The luminescence intensities were compared in terms of different Bi concentrations and dopant concentrations.