LAUSR

Abstract Glasses have a wide variety of applications in different types of devices, including solid-state lasers, fiber-optic amplifiers, medical imaging, radiation dosimeter, solar cells, neutron imaging, and scintillators. Among several rare-earth (RE) ions, Ce3+ exhibits short decay time and offers promising scintillation when it is doped in a transparent glass matrix. The objective of this study was to investigate the energy transfer from Gd3+, La3+, and Y3+ ions to Ce3+ ion in 64.5P2O5:20Li2O:5Al2O3 glass matrix while considering an enhancement in its scintillation efficiency. Four glass samples doped with CeF3 alone and co-doped with GdF3, LaF3, and YF3 were fabricated. Broad photoluminescence and radio-luminescence emissions peaking near to 340 and 350 nm were found when excited by 310 nm and X-ray, respectively, for all the glasses. A photoluminescence emission quenching was found in LaF3 co-doped glass. A strong energy transfer from Gd3+ to Ce3+ was noticed while the GdF3 co-doped glass was excited by X-ray, 275 nm (from Gd3+), and 310 nm (from Ce3+) excitations. The Gd3+ co-doped glass consisted of a 37 ns decay constant under the 266 nm laser excitation. The thermoluminescence analysis showed two glow curves centered at 210 °C and 345 °C, respectively, after X-ray irradiation. Considering the efficient energy transfer from Gd3+ to Ce3+ ions and short lifetime of Ce3+ emission, the glass composition of the above formula having Gd3+ and Li+ with Ce3+ ions appeared to be a promising candidate in the search of good promising scintillating glasses with fast fluorescence decay time.