(Gd,Ce)2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 scintillation glass

Heavy scintillation glass of Gd2O3-Al2O3-SiO2 composition doped with Ce, combining high light yield and fast scintillation kinetics, was developed. The glass samples were prepared at 1500 °C by a melt-quench technique; the resulting glass was colorless and satisfactorily homogeneous. A photoluminescence study showed that a variety of sites for the Ce3+ ion stabilization exists in the glass, but the phenomenon was found less pronounced compared to BaO-Gd2O3-SiO2 glass. The glass has demonstrated ∼4 times faster scintillation kinetics and a minor drop of the light yield related to barium-gadolinium-silica glass, which makes this material of particular interest for large volume detectors in high energy physics, medical imaging, and other applications due to a low-cost production capability.