Crystal Growth, Photoluminescence and Radioluminescence Properties of Ce<sup>3+</sup>-Doped Ba<sub>3</sub>Y(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>3</sub> Crystal
Zhenggang Zou,
Jiaolin Weng,
Chun Liu,
Yiyang Lin,
Jiawei Zhu,
Yijian Sun,
Jianhui Huang,
Guoliang Gong,
Herui Wen
Affiliations
Zhenggang Zou
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Jiaolin Weng
College of Material Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Chun Liu
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Yiyang Lin
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Jiawei Zhu
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Yijian Sun
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Jianhui Huang
College of Rare Earths, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Guoliang Gong
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Herui Wen
Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Crystalline Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, China
Inorganic scintillation crystals have been widely used in applications of high-energy physics, nuclear medical imaging, industrial nondestructive inspection, etc. In this work, a single crystal Ba3Y(PO4)3 (BYP) with 1.0 at% Ce3+-doping concentration was first grown by the Czochralski method, and the electronic structure was calculated using first principles based on density functional theory. In addition, a series of Ce3+-doped BYP phosphors were synthesized, and the fluorescence emission under UV excitation was measured through low-temperature spectroscopy, containing double-peaked emission from 5d–4f transition and self-trapped exciton recombination. A comparison of the UV and X-ray-excited fluorescence spectra reveals the existence of oxygen vacancies as well as F+ centers in the crystal. The air annealing of the crystal effectively reduces the thermoluminescence defects but reduces the emission intensity under UV or X-ray excitation. The BYP:Ce crystal shows a fast decay lifetime of 15.5 ns, and the fast component is as short as 8 ns. The results show that the Ce3+-doped BYP crystal has potential as a kind of scintillator with fast decay properties.
