Compositionally Disordered Ceramic (Gd,Y,Tb,Ce)₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ Phosphor for an Effective Conversion of Isotopes’ Ionizing Radiation to Light

Abstract

Compositionally disordered crystalline material (Gd,Y,Tb,Ce)3Al2Ga3O12 was demonstrated to be a highly effective converter of corpuscular ionizing radiation into light. The material was found to be radiation-tolerant to an intense 10 MeV electron beam and had a low temperature dependence on light yield. These findings open an opportunity to utilize the developed material to create long-living, high-flux sources of optical photons under the irradiation of isotope sources. Besides the purposes of the measurement of ionizing radiation by the scintillation method in a harsh irradiation environment, this puts forward the exploiting of the developed material for indirect isotope voltaic batteries and the consideration of a photon engine for travel beyond the solar system, where solar wind force becomes negligible.

Keywords

• compositional disorder
• ceramics
• garnet structure
• terbium
• cerium
• scintillation light yield