Consequences of doping Er3+ and Yb3+ ions on the thermoluminescence dosimetry performance of the BaO-ZnO-LiF-B2O3-Sm2O3 glass system

The consequences of doping Er3+ and Yb3+ ions on the thermoluminescence (TL) dosimetry performance of the BaO-ZnO-LiF-B2O3-Sm2O3 glass system were examined for the first time. The incorporation of Er3+ and Yb3+ ions were found to be highly detrimental to the TL intensity, sensitivity, and trap density of the Sm3+ doped glass. Although Sm3+ ions enhanced the integrated TL intensity of the host glass by two thousand times, Sm3+-Er3+ and Sm3+-Yb3+ combinations functioned like activator-quencher systems. Contrary, the problem of anomalous loss of 50% signal after a storage week of the Sm3+ doped glass was effectively countered by doping Er3+ (2% loss) and Yb3+ (8% loss) ions. From the trap parameters, the elimination of some shallow traps and deepening of some existing ones was reasoned for minimizing fading. Even if the Er3+ and Yb3+ ions adversely affected the TL intensity of the Sm3+ glass, they greatly improved the stability. The observations indicate that the TL dosimetry performance of a glass system can be suitably tuned by the doping/co-doping of rare-earth ions.

Automated summary

This study examined the effects of doping Er3+ and Yb3+ ions on the thermoluminescence dosimetry performance of the BaO-ZnO-LiF-B2O3-Sm2O3 glass system for the first time. While these ions had a negative impact on the TL intensity, sensitivity, and trap density of the Sm3+ doped glass, they effectively countered the anomalous signal loss after a week and improved the stability. This suggests that rare-earth ion doping can be used to tune the TL dosimetry performance of a glass system.