Thermoluminescence behavior of Sm3+ activated ZnB2O4 phosphors synthesized using low temperature chemical synthesis method

Highlights: • ZnB₂O₄:Sm³⁺ phosphors were synthesized by low temperature chemical synthesis method. • The Thermoluminescence properties were studied by beta excitation source. • Trapping parameters were determined using different methods. This study is mainly centered on thermoluminescence (TL) behavior under beta excitation at room temperature (RT) of Sm³⁺ activated ZnB₂O₄ phosphors synthesized by low temperature chemical synthesis method. The prepared phosphors were characterized by the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) method. The effects of dopant concentration, beta radiation dose (0.115–69 Gy) and heating rate (0.5–10 °C/s) on TL intensity of Sm³⁺ doped ZnB₂O₄ phosphors and reproducibility are investigated using a lexsyg smart TL/OSL reader system. The activation energy values, E obtained from the analysis of the TL glow curve were calculated with initial rise (IR) method and peak shape (PS) method over the deconvoluted glow curves. The E_a–T_stop and CGCD methods indicated that the glow curve of this phosphor is the superposition of at least six components, which were called to as P1–P6, in the temperature range between RT and 400 °C. The results reveal that 2% Sm³⁺ doped ZnB₂O₄ gives optimum TL response, the relative intensity of the glow peak increases linearly with increase of beta dose and, the peaks of TL glow curves shift towards the higher temperature side with increase in heating rate as the total area under the glow peak remains the same. The maximum variation of reproducibility for ten successive irradiation cycles of 20.7 Gy is less than 3% from the average value and the sample doped 2% Sm³⁺ shows a good stability for the reusability. Additionally, the results obtained from IR and PS methods indicates that the complex glow curve is composed of six distinguishable peaks.