Structure and luminescence properties of Dy₂O₃ doped bismuth-borate glasses

In this study heavy bismuth-borate glasses were studied as host matrices of Dy₂O₃ rare earth, for potential application as scintillator materials in high energy physics experiments and in general radiation detection systems. Glass matrices were prepared from 20BaO-xBi₂O₃-(80-x)B₂O₃ (x = 20, 30, 40 mol%) ternary systems and synthesized by the melt-quenching method at different temperatures in order to obtain high density and high transparency in the UV/Vis range. Particularly, the glass manifesting the higher transparency and with sufficiently high density was doped with Dy₂O₃ (2.5 and 5 mol%) in order to induce the luminescence characteristics. The effects of Bi₂O₃ and Dy₂O₃ on density, thermal behaviour, transmission as well as luminescence properties under UV excitation, were investigated. The experimental results show that the synthesized glasses can be considered promising candidate materials as dense scintillators, due to the Dy³⁺ centres emission.