Luminescence property of rare-earth doped bismuth-borate glasses

We fabricated rare-earth doped bismuth borate glasses by using melt-quench technique. Two different types glass samples of xBi₂O₃: (100-x)B₂O₃ (x=30 and 50) were made to compare the luminescence properties. We measured x-ray luminescence of Bi-glass by using a x-ray tube. Several dopants were doped into the Bi-glass to measure the x-ray luminescence such as CeO₂, Nd₂O₃, Er ₂O₃, Dy₂O₃, Pr₂O ₃, Sm₂O₃, Ho₂O₃, Gd ₂O₃ and CeF₃. Among them, Dy₂O ₃, Nd₂O₃ and Sm₂O₃ doped Bi-glass emitted luminescence. We measured emission spectrum of each samples. Dy₂O₃ doped bi-glass has emission band at 482 nm, 575 nm, 662 nm and 765 nm. Nd₂O₃ doped bi-glass have emission band at 895 nm and Sm₂O₃ doped Bi-glass has emission band at 569 nm, 598 nm, 641 nm and 705 nm. Moreover, Bi-glass scintillators with high light yield with good radiation hardness and low cost can be applied in high energy and nuclear physics, medical imaging, homeland security and radiation detection.