Dosimetric properties of MgAl2O4 transparent ceramics doped with Ce

Abstract Ce-doped MgAl 2 O 4 transparent ceramics were fabricated by the spark plasma sintering method. The 0.01% Ce-doped MgAl 2 O 4 exhibited photoluminescence (PL) peaking at 410 nm upon the excitation of 310 nm. On the other hand, the 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1% Ce-doped MgAl 2 O 4 showed different PL excitation peaks. The PL peak at 410 nm was attributed to 5d-4f transitions of Ce 3+ ions with a decay time of a few nanoseconds. Thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) glow curves were mainly composed of three glow peaks. When Ce-doped MgAl 2 O 4 was heated at 300 °C, three TSL emission peaks were observed at around 410, 520 and 700 nm in TSL spectra, originating from Ce 3+ ions, Mn 2+ impurities, and Mg 2+ vacancies, respectively. The normalized TSL intensity declined to 95% for the first 24 h and did not change in 1–5 d within the measurement error. The minimum detectable dose of the 0.5% Ce-doped MgAl 2 O 4 was 0.5 μ Gy.