Achieving anti-thermal-quenching in Tb <sup>3+</sup> -doped glass scintillators via dual-channel thermally enhanced energy transfer
Lianjie Li, Junyu Chen, Guanlin He, Xvsheng Qiao, Hai Guo
Abstract
Based on the requirements of high-temperature industrial flaw detection and oil exploration, glass scintillators for application in high-temperature X-ray imaging have aroused researchers’ great interest. In this work, dual-channel thermally enhanced energy transfer (ET) is proposed to improve the thermal stability of Tb<sup>3+</sup>-doped glass scintillators with excellent scintillating performance. One channel is the thermally enhanced ET from Ce<sup>3+</sup> to Tb<sup>3+</sup> by co-doping Ce<sup>3+</sup>, the other is the thermal compensation effect from traps to Tb<sup>3+</sup> with increasing density of traps by co-doping Ce<sup>3+</sup>. The obtained glass scintillators possess high transmittance (exceeding 86.6% at 542 nm), excellent X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) intensity (365% of that of Bi<sub>4</sub>Ge<sub>3</sub>O<sub>12</sub>), and superior imaging resolution (24 lp/mm). Besides, anti-thermal-quenching luminescence in XEL (XEL intensity at 573 K is 168% of that at 303 K) is achieved. All outcomes undeniably demonstrate that designed Ce<sup>3+</sup>,Tb<sup>3+</sup> co-doped glass scintillators have significant potential in high-temperature X-ray imaging. Dual-channel thermally enhanced ET is beneficial for the development of Tb<sup>3+</sup>-doped glass scintillators with superior scintillating performance and excellent thermal stability.