Rapid synthesis of transparent Lu2O3:RE3+ (RE = Eu, Tb and Tm) thin-film scintillators with tunable RGB luminescence for the detection of X-ray

Abstract

Developing efficient strategies to fabricate planar photoluminescence scintillators is of great importance to explore X-ray detectors with new platform. Rare-earth (RE) doped Lu2O3 thin films are successfully fabricated by mild aqueous phase electrochemical deposition on ITO/glass substrates with low-temperature post-annealing treatment. The as-prepared Lu2O3:RE3+ (RE = Eu, Tb and Tm) thin films exhibit steerable thickness, high transparency in the visible-NIR range, and low transmittance at UV band mainly due to the oxygen-metal (O2--RE3+) charge transfer processes and the 4f-4f transitions of the RE3+. The Lu2O3:RE3+ thin films emit intense red, green and blue (RGB) photoluminescence, which mainly correspond to the 5D0-7F2 transition of Eu3+, 5D4-7F5 transition of Tb3+ and 1G4-3H6 transition of Tm3+ respectively. Moreover, the transparent Lu2O3:RE3+ thin films also exhibit high sensitivity and linearity luminescence to the X-ray stimulation in a dose rate from 30 to 160 mGy s−1. This rapid and energy-saving synthesis show high efficiency to fabricate rare-earth doped thin-film with a tunable optical performance for optoelectrical application in the fields of solar light concentrators, agricultural light conversion thin films, biosensors, photodetectors and especially the X-ray detectors.