Scintillation properties of Ce3+/Tb3+ co-doped oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glass for exploration of X-ray imaging

Ce3+ or Tb3+ single-doped and Ce3+/Tb3+ co-doped oxyfluoride scintillation glass samples were prepared by high temperature melting method. The structures were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), the optical and luminescent properties were studied by transmittance, photoluminescence excitation, photoluminescence, X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) and fluorescence decay. The luminescence intensity in the Ce3+/5 mol% Tb3+ co-doped (CT5) glass sample under 304 nm light and X‐ray excitation is significantly enhanced compared to 5 mol% Tb3+ single-doped (T5) glass sample. The maximum integrated XEL intensity of CT5 glass sample is about 67% of the standard Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) crystal. Through the study of energy transfer mechanism, the results indicate that there is an energy transfer from Gd3+ ions or Ce3+ ions to Tb3+ ions. The lifetime of CT5 glass sample is 2.13 ms. The obtained results confirm that CT5 glass sample could be a promising scintillating material used in X-ray imaging. So we have demonstrated X-ray imaging using Ce3+/1–15 mol% Tb3+ co-doped (CT1-15) glass samples and confirmed they can reach a spatial resolution of 10.0 lp/mm. Further, the X-ray imaging effect of CT5 glass sample is the best, and the capability of CT5 glass sample for X-ray imaging application is confirmed.