Assessment of rare earth ion-doped near-infrared glass scintillators

Abstract

Scintillators emitting in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, particularly within NIR-II (1000–1700 nm), demonstrate appealing merits including bio-tissue penetration capability, resistance to radiation-induced photodarkening, and matching with the low-loss transmission window of optical fibers. However, NIR scintillators based on rare earth (RE) ion-doped glasses remain largely uncharted. In this work, the scintillation properties of eight NIR-II-emitting RE ions (Pr³⁺, Nd³⁺, Sm³⁺, Dy³⁺, Ho³⁺, Er³⁺, Tm³⁺, and Yb³⁺) doped into five different kinds of oxide glasses based on TeO₂, GeO₂, SiO₂, P₂O₅, and B₂O₃ are comprehensively studied. Notably, Er³⁺-doped tellurite glass, characterized by the highest density and lowest phonon energy, exhibited the most intense 1.5 μm photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray-excited radioluminescence (XEL). It also demonstrated an excellent linear response to the radiation dose and was immune to photodarkening in the visible region. These results underscore the potential of NIR glass scintillators as highly sensitive components to be integrated with optical fiber networks for remote radiation detection.