A systematic study on luminescence characterization of lanthanide-doped BeO ceramic dosimeters

•The synthesis of BeO nano-particles using the co-precipitation method.•The effect of lanthanide dopants on RL, TL and OSL characteristics of BeO ceramics.•Investigation of metal co-doping on BeO:Ce,Ln ceramics.•A proposed luminescence mechanism of BeO ceramics doped with lanthanide ions.•Discussion on upconversion (UC) luminescence of BeO ceramics doped with lanthanide ions. This work aimed to investigate the luminescent characteristics of lanthanide and alkali metal ion-doped BeO ceramic pellets prepared using the co-precipitation synthesis technique for Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dosimetry applications. In this study, BeO nano phosphor was doped with lanthanides (Ln3+) Eu3+, Ce3+, Nd3+, Yb3+, Er3+, Gd3+, Tb3+, Tm3+, Sm3+, Pr3+, and Dy3+ and co-doped with Na+, and characterized using radioluminescence (RL), thermoluminescence (TL) and OSL techniques. Lanthanides introduced as dopants not only affected the luminescence centers but also changed the luminescence mechanisms. The RL spectra of lanthanide-doped BeO samples showed that they mostly possess dominant emissions in the narrow bands (between 200 and 450 nm) in the UV region. OSL emission bands were found to be located between ~250 and ~390 nm. The results have demonstrated that the incorporation of appropriate Ln3+ and alkali metal ion dopants and their optimum concentrations enhanced the luminescence intensity of undoped BeO. The studied BeO:Na5%,Ce0.01%,Er0.01%, BeO:Na5%,Ce0.005%,Tb0.05%, and BeO:Na5%,Ce0.01%,Dy0.01% ceramics can be regarded as highly sensitive controllable luminescence dosimeters. The range of sensitivity of those samples is such that their most probable use in clinical therapy dosimetry rather than in health physics.