Growth of α-Al2O3:C crystal with highly sensitive optically stimulated luminescence

In this work, an α-Al2O3:C crystal was directly grown by the temperature gradient technique (TGT) using Al2O3 and graphite powders as the raw materials. The optical, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) properties and dosimetric characteristics of as-grown crystal were investigated. As-grown α-Al2O3:C crystal shows strong absorption band at 205, 230 and 256 nm. Three-dimensional thermoluminescence (TL) emission spectrum of the crystal shows a single emission peak at ∼415 nm. The OSL decay curve can be fitted to two exponentials, the faster component and the slower component. The OSL response of the crystal shows a linear–sublinear–saturation characteristic. As-grown α-Al2O3:C crystal shows excellent linearity in the dose range from 5×10−6 to 50 Gy. For doses higher than the saturation dose (100 Gy), the OSL sensitivity decreases as the dose increases.