Evaluation of radiation-induced luminescence properties in Tl-doped SiO₂ glasses prepared by the spark plasma sintering method

Abstract

We successfully synthesized Tl-doped SiO₂ glasses by the spark plasma sintering method, and the prepared glasses doped with various concentration of Tl were studied for optical, scintillation, thermally-stimulated luminescence (TSL), and optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) properties. The Tl-doped samples indicated photoluminescence (PL) due to Tl⁺ ions characterized as an emission peak around 310 nm. The PL decay time constants ascribed to the emission from Tl⁺ were 0.56–0.60 µs. In the scintillation, an emission peak due to Tl⁺ was observed as well as the PL. The highest PL quantum yield and light yield among the present samples were 10.2% and 1100 photons/MeV under ²⁴¹Am α-ray exposure, respectively. Moreover, the Tl-doped samples showed the TSL and OSL emission peak caused by Tl⁺ and the dynamic range in OSL was confirmed from 0.01 to 100 mGy.