Abstract :
The ceramic processing and characterization
of Bi4Ge3O12 pure and doped with Eu3+ and Nd3+
was performed in order to investigate its potential use
in radiation detector devices. Single phase Bi4Ge3O12
in pure state and containing 1% of the dopands Nd3+
and Eu3+ were produced via a solid state route and
their photoluminescent and radioluminescent properties
were investigated. When excited at 200–230 nm,
pure BGO ceramics presented a wide photoluminescent
band emission centered at 450 nm, assigned to the
Bi3+ internal transitions. For the doped samples under
the same excitation, this wide band was superposed by
the emission peaks of the rare earth dopands, at
around 600 nm for BGO:Eu3+ and at 350 nm, 430 and
600 nm for BGO:Nd3+. Radioluminescence measurements
presented similar results and allowed the determination
of the light output efficiency of the three
scintillators. The values determined were 4 · 103
photons/MeV for BGO:Nd and 5.9 · 103 photons/
MeV for BGO:Eu, which are higher than the value
3.9 · 103 photons/MeV determined previously for the
pure ceramic. A selective sensibility of the BGO:Eu
ceramics to the nature and energy of the radiation,
which is not observed in pure samples, was also
presented and discussed.
