Scintillation performance of the Ce³⁺ -activated lithium phosphate glass

Ce³⁺ -doped phosphate glasses with intense luminescence were reported extensively for radiation detection in recent decades. With the same intension, we fabricated glasses of composition 45P₂O₅:35Li₂O:(10-x)GdI₃:5Al₂O₃:5Ca₂CO₃:xCeBr₃ (x = 1, 2, 3, 5) in molar ratio using conventional technique followed by thermal annealing. The luminescence studies confirmed the energy transfer process from Gd³⁺ to Ce³⁺ -ions. The scintillation measurements of the optimized sample were performed under the excitation of α -particles and γ-rays. A photopeak was detected under γ-ray excitation at 662 keV energy from ¹³⁷Cs source. The estimated absolute light yield was 1600 ± 200 Photons/MeV. The shortest component of the decay time under α -particles and γ -ray excitations was found 32.5 ± 0.3 ns and 39.9 ± 0.4 ns, respectively. In the future, the glass configuration can be engineered to improve radiation detection performance.