Achieving anti-thermal-quenching in Tb 3+ -doped glass scintillators via dual-channel thermally enhanced energy transfer

Based on the requirements of high-temperature industrial flaw detection and oil exploration, glass scintillators for application in high-temperature X-ray imaging have aroused researchers’ great interest. In this work, dual-channel thermally enhanced energy transfer (ET) is proposed to improve the thermal stability of Tb3+-doped glass scintillators with excellent scintillating performance. One channel is the thermally enhanced ET from Ce3+ to Tb3+ by co-doping Ce3+, the other is the thermal compensation effect from traps to Tb3+ with increasing density of traps by co-doping Ce3+. The obtained glass scintillators possess high transmittance (exceeding 86.6% at 542 nm), excellent X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) intensity (365% of that of Bi4Ge3O12), and superior imaging resolution (24 lp/mm). Besides, anti-thermal-quenching luminescence in XEL (XEL intensity at 573 K is 168% of that at 303 K) is achieved. All outcomes undeniably demonstrate that designed Ce3+,Tb3+ co-doped glass scintillators have significant potential in high-temperature X-ray imaging. Dual-channel thermally enhanced ET is beneficial for the development of Tb3+-doped glass scintillators with superior scintillating performance and excellent thermal stability.