Particles size increase assisted enhancement of thermoluminescence emission in gadolinium and dysprosium oxide doped phosphate glasses

This paper presents results of research on the influence of particles size of Gd2O3 and Dy2O3 doped phosphate glasses on the intensity of thermoluminescence (TL) signals. The obtained glasses were investigated towards potential application in high dose radiation measurements. Simultaneously, next to the glass powders, the glass/polytetrafluoroethylene composite detectors were prepared and used to study dosimetric signal dependencies and influence of glass particles size on their TL behavior. The thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) technique was used as the main investigation tool to study detectors dose response. Next to the sole effect of the glass particles size, the results present also an influence of the rare earth dopants on intensity of TL signal. The obtained data present the dosimetric properties of raw and doped phosphate glass (effect of particles size, dose response and radiation sensitivity). It has been found that incorporation of rare earth oxides into glass matrix changes substantially the thermoluminescent behavior of a pure phosphate glass. The highest luminescence yield was found for the samples with the largest glass particles (up to 1000 μm). The incorporation of dysprosium or gadolinium ions into the glass matrix influences both the structure of the electron traps in the glass matrix and TL emission intensity vs. particles size. The dependence of the thermoluminescence signals intensity vs. particles size for all samples can be considered as a saturation type curve. The investigated phosphate glasses exhibit good thermoluminescence properties for the high energy beta radiation dose measurement applications. •Thermoluminescence properties Gd2O3 and Dy2O3 doped phoshate glasses reported.•Thermoluminescence intensity increases with glass particles size.•Linear correlation of thermoluminescence intensity vs. radiation dose.•Effect of PTFE presence in detector studied.