High energy radiation detectors based on scintillating glass composites

• Grant number: 21/12361-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2021
• End date: November 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Simone Stucchi de Camargo Alvarez Bernardez
• Grantee: Akira Yamashiro
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07793-6 - CEPIV - Center for Teaching, Research and Innovation in Glass, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The increasing global energetic demand makes the development of durable, efficient and environmentally friendly materials of paramount importance. Particularly, luminescent ceramic materials raise a lot of attention due to the possibility of an ample variety of applications as in light emitting devices (LEDs), emergency lighting, biomarkers, radiation detectors, etc. The incorporation of these polycrystalline luminescent compounds into glassy matrices gives rise to optically active composites with applications in large scale. In special, for high energy radiation detection (X-rays, ultraviolet), the glass-ceramics synergy is advantageous, because it combines the photoluminescent properties of the polycristaline materials with the well known stability and chemical/thermal resistance of glasses. In this project, scintillation materials based on Gd2O2S:Tb3+ will be prepared through rapid and environmentally friendly synthesis as the microwave assisted solid state method (MASS). These materials will be incorporated into glassy matrices with composition 80NaPO3-20Al2O3, with the final objective to develop high energy radiation detectors. (AU)