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Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements have been carried out on single crystals of Ag doped Li 2 B 4 O 7 (LTB:Ag) after exposure to various nuclear radiations. The time integrated OSL intensity is found to be linear in the range from 0.1 Gy to 500 Gy. Fading of the OSL signal was found to be around 36% in 48 h. The presence of 6 Li and 10 B has been gainfully utilized to measure doses of thermal neutrons. Further, the large difference between the wavelength of the stimulation source (∼460 nm) and emission from the LTB:Ag at 270 nm has enhanced the signal-to-noise ratio in a simple OSL set-up with suitable filters. The high sensitivity of the LTB:Ag to thermal neutrons will be useful in variety of applications including personal dosimetry in mixed-fields and imaging devices for neutron radiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oriented columnar films of Tl doped CsI (CsI:Tl) of varying thicknesses from 50 µm to 1000 µm have been deposited on silica glass substrates by a thermal evaporation technique. The SEM micrographs confirmed the columnar structure of the film while the powder X-ray diffraction pattern recorded for the films revealed a preferred orientation of the grown columns along the <200> direction. Effects of high energy gamma exposure up to 1000 Gy on luminescence properties of the films were investigated. Results of radio-luminescence, photo-luminescence and scintillation studies on the films are compared with those of a CsI:Tl single crystal with similar thickness. A possible correlation between the film thicknesses and radiation damage in films has been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of Li 2 B 4 O 7 (LTB) with varying Ag content were grown using the Czochralski technique and studied for their optical absorption, photo-luminescence (PL) and thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) properties. The optimum Ag concentration in the LTB was found to be about 500 ppm for the best TSL properties. A TSL readout set-up has been described that uses a solar blind photo-multiplier tube (PMT) to match the emission from Ag which is in the UV region (peak at 270 nm). This has significantly improved the performance of the TSL set-up by lowering dark counts and enhancing the signal due to a better matching between the emission from Ag ions and PMT response. In addition, the use of the solar blind PMT also minimized the thermal noise generated from heating of sample in the TSL set-up. Radiation doses lower than 5 μGy could be measured using this set-up with small LTB:Ag crystal samples (100 mg). The lower detection limit has been estimated to be 500 nGy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method comprising solution combustion followed by a heat treatment has been employed to synthesize cerium doped gadolinium pyrosilicate (Gd 2 Si 2 O 7 :Ce, or GPS:Ce) compounds. The powder obtained after the combustion was annealed at 1200 °C for 4 h and 1600 °C for 3 h to synthesize triclinic and orthorhombic phases of the GPS, respectively. Structural and morphological characterizations of the synthesized compounds were carried out using X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) techniques. A change in the enthalpy was observed in the differential thermal analysis data as a consequence of triclinic to orthorhombic phase transition in the GPS. Luminescence spectra and fluorescence decay time were measured at room temperature to characterize emission centers created in GPS compounds doped with trivalent rare earth ion (Ce 3+ ). The triclinic GPS:Ce phase exhibited photoluminescence peaks at 379 nm and 410 nm while for the orthorhombic phase emissions at 353 nm and 380 nm were observed. A multi-component exponential decay pattern of the luminescence is observed for both the GPS:Ce phases. In addition, samples of the orthorhombic GPS:Ce were found to exhibit X-ray excited luminescence (XEL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]