Structure and luminescence properties of Dy2O3 doped bismuth-borate glasses

In this work heavy bismuth-borate glasses were studied as host matrices of Dy2O3 rare earth, for potential application as scintillator materials in high energy physics experiments and in general radiation detection systems. Glass matrices were prepared from 20BaO-xBi2O3-(80-x)B2O3 (x=20, 30, 40mol%) ternary systems and synthesized by the melt-quenching method at different temperatures in order to obtain high density and high transparency in the UV/Vis range. Particularly, the glass manifesting the higher transparency and with sufficiently high density was doped with Dy2O3 (2.5 and 5mol%) in order to induce the luminescence characteristics. The effects of Bi2O3 and Dy2O3 on density, thermal behaviour, transmission as well as luminescence properties under UV excitation, were investigated. The experimental results show that the synthesized glasses can be considered promising candidate materials as dense scintillators, due to the Dy3+ centres emission. [Display omitted] •Heavy bismuth-borate glasses containing Dy2O3 were synthesized and characterized.•The synthesized glasses have high transparency and a high density.•The glasses can be considered promising candidate materials as dense scintillators.