Influence of SrF₂-doping in AlN ceramics on scintillation and dosimeter properties

In this study, we synthesized undoped AlN and SrF₂-doped AlN (AlN-SrF₂) ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), and we characterized their optical, scintillation and dosimeter properties. The prepared undoped AlN ceramic had gray color and visually non-transparent whereas, with an addition of SrF₂, the transparency improved and became translucent. The measured in-line transmittance was approximately 0.2% at wavelengths longer than 500 nm. While the addition of SrF₂ decreased the scintillation intensity, the decay time was significantly fastened, which is a great advantage for fast photon counting-based measurements. Both the thermally-stimulated luminescence (TSL) and optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) showed good linear response from the milli-gray range to over 10 Gy. The sensitivity seems to decrease by an addition of SrF₂ as it suppresses structural defect centers which are responsible for dosimeter properties. However, the main TSL glow peak position shifts to higher temperature with the addition of SrF₂, which indicates that inclusion of SrF₂ improves the TSL signal stability. - Highlights: • We synthesized undoped and SrF₂-doped AlN ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering. • We evaluated scintillator and dosimeter properties of undoped and SrF₂-doped AlN. • By doping with SrF₂, the decay time is shortened. • By doping with SrF₂, the stability of TSL and OSL is improved.