Cu/Ce-co-Doped Silica Glass as Radioluminescent Material for Ionizing Radiation Dosimetry

Jessica Bahout (1) , Youcef Ouerdane (2) , Hicham El Hamzaoui (1) , Géraud Bouwmans (1) , Mohamed Bouazaoui (1) , Andy Cassez (3, 1) , Karen Baudelle (1, 3) , Rémi Habert (1, 3) , Adriana Morana (2) , Aziz Boukenter (2) , Sylvain Girard (2) , Bruno Capoen (1)

1 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523
2 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien
3 IRCICA - Institut de Recherche sur les Composants logiciels et matériels pour l'Information et la Communication Avancé - UAR 3380

Optically activated glasses are essential to the development of new radiation detection systems. In this study, a bulk glassy rod co-doped with Cu and Ce ions, was prepared via the sol-gel technique and was drawn at about 2000 °C into a cylindrical capillary rod to evaluate its optical and radioluminescence properties. The sample showed optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) bands attributed to Cu + and Ce 3+ ions. The presence of these two ions inside the host silica glass matrix was also confirmed using PL kinetics measurements. The X-ray dose rate was remotely monitored via the radioluminescence (RL) signal emitted by the Cu/Ce scintillating sensor. In order to transport the optical signal from the irradiation zone to the detection located in the instrumentation zone, an optical transport fiber was spliced to the sample under test. This RL signal exhibited a linear behavior regarding the dose rate in the range at least between 1.1 mGy(SiO2)/s and 34 Gy(SiO2)/s. In addition, a spectroscopic analysis of this RL signal at different dose rates revealed that the same energy levels attributed to Cu + and Ce 3+ ions are involved in both the RL mechanism and the PL phenomenon. Moreover, integrated intensities of the RL sub-bands related to both Cu + and Ce 3+ ions depend linearly on the dose rate at least in the investigated range from 102 mGy(SiO2)/s up to 4725 mGy(SiO2)/s. The presence of Ce 3+ ions also reduces the formation of HC1 color centers after X-ray irradiation.

Mots clés: ionizing radiation; photoluminescence; dosimetry; radioluminescence; Cu + /Ce 3+ -co-doped silica glass

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Jessica Bahout, Youcef Ouerdane, Hicham El Hamzaoui, Géraud Bouwmans, Mohamed Bouazaoui, et al.. Cu/Ce-co-Doped Silica Glass as Radioluminescent Material for Ionizing Radiation Dosimetry. Materials, 2020, 13, ⟨10.3390/ma13112611⟩. ⟨hal-02860421⟩