Federico Moretti

Ce3+-doped fibers for remote radiation dosimetry

A radioluminescent (RL) dosimetric system, based on a SiO2 optical fiber with the core doped by Ce3+ ions as luminescent activators has been investigated. Structural and optical properties of the luminescent fiber have been studied by Raman, refractive index, RL and scintillation time decay measurements, and compared to those obtained on bulk material. The RL response of a composite fiber made of a short portion of active Ce-doped fiber coupled to a long commercial one has been investigated by x-ray irradiation. A linear RL intensity response has been found in the dose rate interval 6×10−3–40mGy∕s together with a good radiation hardness, suggesting possible application in low-dose monitoring.

Optical and scintillation characteristics of Y2O3 transparent ceramic

Various fundamental characteristics of Y2O3 ceramics, such as optical transmittance, reflectivity, absorption coefficient, refractive index, and dielectric constant, were investigated. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the possible application of this material as γ-ray scintillator, other radiation responses, like the α-ray excited emission spectrum, the γ-ray excited pulse height spectrum, the light yield, the nonproportionality, the energy resolution, and the γ-ray excited scintillation decay curves were obtained. The light yield of Y2O3 ceramics was evaluated in about 1.13 times higher than that of Bi4Ge3O12(BGO):Ce single crystals and was estimated in 9300 photon/MeV. The nonproportionality measurements showed a good proportionality. The scintillation decay curve could be fitted by an exponential function characterized by a fast component of about 34 ns.

Single crystalline LuAG fibers for homogeneous dual-readout calorimeters

For the next generation of calorimeters, designed to improve the energy resolution of hadrons and jets measurements, there is a need for highly granular detectors requiring peculiar geometries. Heavy inorganic scintillators allow compact homogeneous calorimeter designs with excellent energy resolution and dual-readout abilities. These scintillators are however not usually suited for geometries with a high aspect ratio because of the important losses observed during the light propagation. Elongated single crystals (fibers) of Lutetium Aluminium garnet (LuAG, Lu3Al5O12) were successfully grown with the micropulling-down technique. We present here the results obtained with the recent fiber production and we discuss how the light propagation could be enhanced to reach attenuation lengths in the fibers better than 0.5 m.

Optical and Structural Properties of Pb and Ce Doped

We bring into consideration a novel, potentially promising scintillating material, Pb-doped SrHfO3. The structural and optical properties of a series of Pb-doped SrHfO3 powders prepared by acetate and citrate combustion are investigated and compared to those of undoped and Ce-doped powders with the same composition. Room temperature radioluminescence studies as a function of sintering temperature show that samples sintered up to the highest final temperature (1150°C) display the highest light output. Moreover, Pb-doped SrHfO3 shows a higher radioluminescence efficiency with respect to Ce-doped SrHfO3, which in turn features a very fast photoluminescence decay time of 15 ns. The presence of point defects and their role in carrier trapping are studied by thermally stimulated luminescence as well as by radioluminescence as a function of temperature.

{\hbox {SrHfO}}_{3}

Single crystals of CsI, CsI:Tl, and CsI:Tl,Bi were grown by the vertical Bridgman method. We studied the effect of Bi3+ codoping on the CsI:Tl X-ray-induced afterglow. Thermally stimulated luminescence measurements were carried out in order to investigate the role of traps. The results showed a remarkable reduction of afterglow, of about an order of magnitude, and of trap concentration by Bi codoping. These improvements could be related to a possible role of Bi in the compensation of intrinsic nonstoichiometry defects.

Powders

Transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and radio-luminescence are employed to investigate rare-earth (RE) incorporation and aggregate formation in silica glasses prepared by the Sol-Gel method and doped with Ce3+, or Tb3+, Gd3+, Yb3+ with concentrations up to several mol%. The results demonstrate that rare-earth aggregates with a mean diameter extending up to several tens of nanometers occur, further increasing their size after post-densification high temperature treatments. Rare-earth segregation causes a reduction of the OH content of glasses. Nanoclusters are amorphous, possibly close to a (RE)2SiO5 stoichiometry. Room temperature radio-luminescence measurements reveal that the emission spectra are dominated by RE3+ emissions and no bands due to silica matrix defects are detected.

Afterglow Suppression by Codoping with Bi in CsI:Tl Crystal Scintillator

The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of shallow traps on scintillating properties of YAlO3:Ce. Wavelength-resolved thermally stimulated luminescence measurements following X-ray irradiation at 10 K have been performed on both undoped and Ce-doped crystals. Different and composite glow curves and emission spectra were obtained. Following glow peaks analysis of YAlO3:Ce, their room temperature decay time was evaluated to be of the order of 10-4 s. The presence of an athermal tunneling recombination process between traps and Ce3+ ions below 100 K has been evidenced by phosphorescence decays.

Evidences of Rare-Earth Nanophases Embedded in Silica Using Vibrational Spectroscopy

The influence of Ca codoping on the optical absorption, photo-, radio-, and thermo-luminescence properties of YAlO3 :Ce (YAP:Ce) crystals has been studied for four different calcium concentrations ranging from 0 to 500 ppm. Ca codoping results in a partial oxidation of Ce3+ into Ce4+ , The luminescence time response under pulsed X-ray excitation of the Ce3+ /Ce4+ admixure clearly demonstrates the role of hole migration on both the rise time and the generally observed slow components. From an application point of view, Ca codoping significantly improves the timing performances, but the induced presence of Ce4+ ions is also the cause of a reduction in scintillation efficiency.

Shallow Traps in Single Crystal Perovskites

Scintillating materials, able to convert energy of ionizing radiation into light in the visible-UV interval, are presently used in a wide class of applications such as medical imaging, industrial inspection, security controls and high energy physics detectors. In the last few years we studied and developed a new radiation sensor based on silica-glass fiber-optic technology. In its simplest configuration such device is composed by a short portion (about 10 mm) of scintillating fiber coupled to a photomultiplier through a suitably long passive silica fiber. In this work, we present new results concerning the characterization of silica based Ce and Eu doped fibers glasses obtained by a modified sol-gel method and drawn by a conventional drawing tower for optical fibers. The radio-luminescence of Eu doped fibers is rather weak; moreover it displays a marked sensitivity increase during subsequent irradiations, preventing the use of such fibers in dosimetry. On the other hand Ce-doped fibers show very high radiation hardness, signal stability and reproducibility, and high sensitivity to radiations with energies from 10 keV to several tens of MeV. Numerous tests with photons (X and gamma rays), electrons, and protons have already been successfully performed. At the early stage of its market introduction it is the smallest radiation sensor, also compared to MOSFET and diode technology and it appears to be the ideal choice for in vivo measurements in medical field or remote sensing.

Consequences of Ca Codoping in YAlO3:Ce Single Crystals

Doubly-doped BaY2F8:Tm,Nd scintillation crystals were grown by modified micro-pulling-down method. Nd co-doping was chosen to enhance the energy transfer from the host lattice to the Nd3+ luminescence center via the 5d-levels of Tm3+, due to the overlap of Tm3+ 5d-4f emission spectrum with the Nd3+ 4f-5d absorption. The energy transfer was clearly evidenced in the BaY2F8:Tm,Nd. This process is not complicated by an energy migration to killer centers and/or cross-relaxation. The radioluminescence process is complicated by an energy transfer from the host lattice exciton states to the lower f-levels of Tm3+ ion.