Photoluminescence study on irradiated yttria stabilized zirconia

Highlights: • YSZ and management of nuclear wastes. • Exposure to radiation environment. • First Photoluminescence data on irradiated YSZ pellets. - Abstract: The structural variations within monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic zirconia pellets with different amounts of yttria doping and its subsequent exposure to various proton, silver ion and gamma irradiation fluxes were investigated using photoluminescence spectroscopy. Upon ion irradiation color centers were produced at doses >10¹⁵ ions/cm² resulting in purple coloration. The decrease in photoluminescence intensity was observed for proton irradiated pellets except for tetragonal zirconia (6YSZ: 6 mol% Y₂O₃ doped ZrO₂). The anomalous behaviour in case of tetragonal zirconia may result from short range ordering of oxygen vacancies around Zr ions occurring in order to relieve the stress/lattice distortions associated with proton impingement