Radiation response properties of rare-earth-doped CsCl translucent ceramics

Abstract

  We have synthesized Ce-doped CsCl translucent ceramics by the spark plasma sintering method and have investigated their optical, scintillation and dosimeter properties. Regarding the scintillation properties, the X-ray induced scintillation spectra of the samples showed three peaks around 280, 380 and 410 nm. The origin of the emissions were attributed to the Auger free luminescence and 5d→4f (²F_5/2 and ²F_7/2) transitions of Ce³⁺. In addition, the scintillation decay curves were well-approximated by a sum of two exponential decay functions. The decay time constants of the samples were approximately 1.7 and 31 ns. As dosimeter properties, thermally-stimulated luminescence (TSL) spectra of the samples consisted of two emission peaks around 400 and 480 nm. The origin of the emissions were due to the mixture of CsCl host and 5d-4f transitions of Ce³⁺. In the TSL dose response functions, all the samples showed a good linearity from 0.1 mGy to 100 mGy. The detection limit of 0.1 mGy was comparable with some commercial dosimeters.