Applications of a Table-Top Time-Resolved Luminescence Spectrometer With Nanosecond Soft X-ray Pulse Excitation

We present the applications of time-resolved spectrometer for soft X-ray (SXR) excited luminescence measurements. We use the spectrometer to monitor the delayed recombination phenomena in the scintillation response of ZnO:Ga nanoparticles, SrHfO3 microcrystalline powder, and rare-earth doped LiCaAlF6 single crystals in an extended time and dynamic range. The nanosecond soft X-ray (E approximate to 0.4 keV) pulse plasma source is used for excitation of a scintillation process. High sensitivity of our experiment is enabled by an intense nanosecond SXR pulse with a very short absorption length (< 1 mu m) in scintillation materials and sensitive fast photomultiplier-based detection. Thus, we are able to measure decay profiles with signal-to-noise ratio as high as 10(5) and with nanosecond resolution over millisecond time range. Moreover, the presented technique allows studying powder materials, due to the aforementioned extremely short absorption length of SXR.