Development of Tb 3+ , Nd 3+ e Eu 3+ doped BGO ceramics scintillator

Abstract

This work studied the application potential of the bismuth germanate ceramic (Bi4Ge3O12 - BGO) trivalentcationic dopants: Tb3+, Eu3+and Nd3+aiming at a possible substitution single crystals of Bi4Ge3O12 in devicesthat use the principle of scintillation for radiation detection. Scintillator is a luminescent material that absorbsradiation and then transforms the energy of this radiation into light. Among the advantages of the ceramics, thecost reduced of production can be mentioned, a better homogeneous distribution of doped in the crystallinelattice and the possibility of producing ceramic bodies of varied sizes and forms. The ceramic powders ofBGO were produced by synthesis of solid-state reaction, were pressed into pellets and sintered in an openatmosphere furnace. Doped ceramic powders were produced with 1% of Nd3+, 0,5mol% of Tb3+and 0,9% ofEu3+. The green densities of ceramic bodies were accompanied through the geometric methods and the densityof sintered ceramic bodies was accompanied by Archimedes principle of liquid immersion technique in water.In these measured, it was observed that the density of the ceramic develops of an initial value of 60% up to98% during the sintering process. The characterization used the techniques of X-Ray diffraction (XRD),termoluminesce (TL), radioluminescence (RL) and photoluminescence. The termoluminesce of the dopedceramic showed to be less intense if compared with the emission of the no-doped ceramic, indicating smallerdensity of snares in these materials. The radioluminescence (RL) measurements presented an emission pickaround 550nm due to intrinsic processes. The efficiency of the scintillator doped went better then the pureceramic in some wave lengths.