Ionoluminescence and optical transmission investigation of ZnO(In) fast ceramic scintillator irradiated with swift heavy ions

Abstract

Indium doped zinc oxide, ZnO(In), is a promising scintillation material for nanosecond-fast beam monitoring and counting heavy ions of MeV energy and above. We investigated the ionoluminescence and UV/Vis light transmission spectra that occur in ZnO(In) ceramic exposed to 4.8 MeV/u [Formula: see text]Ca and [Formula: see text]Au ions up to [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively. Ionoluminescence and UV/Vis light transmission spectra were measured online as a function of fluence. Ionoluminescence is characterized by an intensive single emission band at 387 nm due to near-band-edge emission. We observed that the loss of the ionoluminescence intensity is more sensitive to the ion-beam-induced radiation damage than the loss of the optical transmission. The ionoluminescence intensity reduction as a function of ion fluence is described within the Birks–Black model. ZnO(In) exhibits higher radiation hardness and, thus, a longer lifetime than plastic scintillators used so far for fast-counting applications.

Multi-tile zinc-oxide-based radiation-hard fast scintillation counter for relativistic heavy-ion beam diagnostics: prototype design and test

“…In-doped and Ga-doped ZnO ceramics prepared by uni-axial hot pressing in vacuum have been investigated as promising scintillators for fast heavy ion counting applications [12,13,14,15]. They exhibit orders of magnitude higher radiation hardness than plastic scintillators, and thus can provide longer exploitation time before scintillator replacement is required.…”