Luminescence characteristics of Ce3+ doped multicomponent lithium fluorophosphate glasses

Abstract

We have used the melt quenching technique to fabricate glass samples with the composition 20Li2O–10AlF3-2.5R-(57-x)P2O5-10Gd2O3-0.5CeF3 (R = 0, NaF, KF). These glasses were synthesized and their density, molar volume, refractive index, FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy) spectra, transmittance spectra, decay time analysis, and photo and radioluminescence properties were reported. Surface-sensitive techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) were investigated. As a result, the FTIR spectra of these glasses break the Q2 tetrahedral sites of the phosphate structure when adding alkali fluoride. UV emission at ∼337 nm was observed at ∼302 nm excitation. In XPS spectra, phosphorus oxidation states (P2p) were detected. The investigation of X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES) of Ce LIII-edge was shown at ∼5.726 keV and confirmed the presence of Ce3+ and Ce4+ was shown at ∼5.731 keV and ∼5.738 keV. The comparison of the Ce3+ and Ce4+ ratios by fitting the energy range in the XANES spectrum may confirm the luminescence characteristic of the glass. A full energy peak was observed in the pulse height spectra of a 241Am α-ray irradiation in the PLGdAfKfCe0.5 glass, and the calculated light yields of PLGdAfKfCe0.5 was 49 Ph/MeV under α-ray. From the results can be concluded that the PLGdAfKfCe0.5 glass showed promising properties as a scintillator material.