Scintillation, luminescence and optical properties of Ce-Doped borosilicate glasses

The structure, ultraviolet (UV) transparency, luminescence, and scintillation of CeO2-doped (0.1 mol%) borosilicate glasses containing Sb2O3, SnO2 or P2O5 were investigated. Glasses were prepared by melt quenching in air and characterized by several spectroscopy techniques: Raman scattering, optical absorption, photoluminescence (PL), fluorescence lifetime, thermoluminescence, and radioluminescence. Raman scattering results presented three major groups of vibrational modes, within 230-850 cm(-1), 850-1250 cm(-1), and 1250-1600 cm(-1). Luminescence was dominated by a broad band centered at around 360-380 nm, depending on the chemical composition of the glass. Photoluminescence presented a dominant (96-98%) fast decay time of 36-40 ns that was ascribed to Ce3+. The P2O5-containing glass showed the highest scintillation output under X-ray excitation.