Reproducible X-ray excited luminescence performance with transparent Tb3+-doped NaGd2F7 scintillating glass ceramics

Abstract

Oxyfluoride glass ceramics with low toxicity, high stability and strong X-ray excited luminescence intensity are introduced as scintillating material. Herein, a series of novel NaGd2F7:xTb3+ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) were synthesized through in situ growth self-crystallization. X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectrometer and transmission electron microscopy were measured to investigate the structure and morphology of NaGd2F7 glass ceramics. These investigations demonstrate that NaGd2F7 nanocrystals are uniformly distributed in glass matrix with 20–30 nm diameter. Photoluminescence and X-ray excitation spectra are greatly enhanced after further thermal treatment which verify better crystallization of NaGd2F7 glass ceramics. The X-ray excited luminescence of the GC2–640 sample can reach 143.8% of the commercial BGO. More importantly, the damaged material can be completely repaired by annealing at 350 °C for 30 min. Our investigation indicates that Tb-doped transparent NaGd2F7 glass ceramics are potential candidates of X-ray scintillating material.