Scintillation properties of Er 3+ -activated BaO–Nb 2 O 5 –TeO 2 glasses

Recently, glasses have gained great interest for use as scintillators owing to lots of industrial benefits such as ease of producing customizable shapes and low production cost. Herein, the Er 3+ -activated BaO–Nb 2 O 5 –TeO 2 glasses were fabricated for the development of NIR glass scintillators. The Er 3+ -activated BaO–Nb 2 O 5 –TeO 2 glasses exhibited efficient photoluminescence and scintillation that originated from the 4f→4f transition of Er 3+ . Their quantum yields in photoluminescence were 80% (0.1%Er 2 O 3 ), 81% (0.5%Er 2 O 3 ), and 61% (1.0%Er 2 O 3 ). Further, an almost linear correlation between an X-ray dose rate and NIR scintillation intensity was observed in the 0.5–5000 mGy h −1 dose rate range. Interestingly, the lowest detectable dose rate limit (0.5 mGy h −1 ) was lower than that of Er-doped Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 and Nd-doped GdVO 4 single crystals. Further, afterglow levels of the non-doped and Er 3+ -activated BaO–Nb 2 O 5 –TeO 2 glasses were about 600 ppm. The observed NIR scintillation properties indicated that the Er 3+ -activated tellurite glasses should be promising compounds for NIR-emitting scintillators.