Doping effects in nanostructured cadmium tungstate scintillation films

This paper reports experimental study on the development of cadmium tungstate scintillator material in the form of nanocrystal films through controlled sol–gel processing and pre-designed doping. We chose cadmium tungstate as a base material for doping and nanostructure development due to its excellent inherent photoluminescence (PL) property, and chemical and thermal stability including non-hydroscopicity. Experimental results revealed that doping with Li+, B3+ and Bi3+ resulted in appreciably reduced grain size and increased density leading to enhanced optical transmittance. Further analyses indicated that PL output changed significantly with the introduction of dopants. The relationships between doping, microstructure, and PL were discussed.