Detecting and shielding properties of Ce3+-doped zinc–gadolinium-fluoroborate glasses for X-ray and proton radiation

Abstract

Zinc-gadolinium-fluoroborate glasses doped with cerium fluoride (CeF3) were successfully fabricated to detect and shield X-ray and proton radiation. The doped glasses were studied at varying ZnO concentrations to investigate their properties, including density, transmittance, photoluminescence, and the oxidation states of dopants The glasses were tested for their sensitivity to detect X-ray and proton radiation, and calculations of the half-value layer and proton range were used to investigate their shielding properties. The results showed that an increase in ZnO concentrations induced a higher glass density and shifted the absorption edge to a longer wavelength (redshift) in the optical transmittance spectra. The cerium dopant mainly formed the Ce3+ oxidation state, resulting in a single broad band emission due to the 5d→4f transition of Ce3+ ions. The luminescence behavior of the doped glasses under x-ray irradiation showed a single broad emission at 375 nm. In contrast, under proton irradiation, the single broad emission shifted to a longer wavelength at 400 nm. The increase in ZnO concentration decreased light emission when exposed to x-rays and protons. The results also demonstrated that increasing ZnO concentrations improved the shielding properties of the glasses. We found that the glass with a 25 mol% ZnO concentration revealed a half-value layer of the 100 keV photon energy equal to 0.116 ± 0.001 cm, and a 70 MeV proton energy penetrated the maximum range in the glass at 1.308 ± 0.019 cm. We concluded that ZnO could be used to control the fraction between Ce3+ and Ce4+ ions in the cerium ions of the CeF3-doped glasses.