Effect of ion irradiation on the thermoluminescence properties of K₂Ca₂(SO₄)₃ phosphor

Abstract

This paper presents the thermoluminescence (TL) studies of ion-irradiated potassium–calcium mixed sulfate phosphor. The sample was prepared by the solid-state diffusion method. The X-ray diffraction study of the prepared sample suggests an orthorhombic structure with an average particle size of 0.16 μ m. The samples were irradiated with 1.2 MeV argon ions at fluences varying between 10¹¹ and 10¹⁵ ions/cm². The argon ions penetrate to a depth of 1.93 μ m and lose their energy mainly via electronic stopping. Due to ion irradiation, a large number of defects such as oxygen vacancies, radicals and color centers are formed in the sample. TL glow curves were recorded for each of the ion fluences. A linear increase in the intensity of TL glow peaks was found with an increase in the ion dose from 72 kGy to 720 MGy. The kinetic parameters associated with the prominent glow peaks were calculated using glow curve deconvolution, different glow curve shapes and sample heating rate methods.

Keywords:

• phosphors
• solid-state reaction
• X-ray diffraction
• ion irradiation effects
• thermoluminescence

PACS :

• 78.60Kn
• 78.70.-g

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr Amit Roy, Director, Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this work. The authors express their gratitude to Dr Praveen Kumar, Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, for his technical help during the course of this work.