SiO 2 -based scintillating fibers for x-ray detectors

New Ce3+ - doped high-grade silica glasses are synthesized by a modified sol-gel method, to be used as scintillators for the detection of X-rays and low energy particles. These glasses have efficiency a factor of 2 higher than state-of-the-art Bi4Ge3O12 crystals, high radiation hardness and high compatibility with the silica-based photonic technology. Powder-in-tube and rod-in-tube techniques are used to fabricate low-loss optical fibres with 135, 220 and 660 microns diameter. Device prototypes are obtained by fusion-splicing these fibres to commercial high numerical aperture optical fibres.