Scintillation fibers based on rare-earth
ion-doped crystal materials
have attracted significant attention for applications in a wide range
of areas from security to healthcare. However, the scintillation performance
of crystal fibers is severely limited owing to the complex preparation
process. Here, we report a modified preparation process of the transparent
Ce/Tb co-doped yttrium pyrosilicate (YPS) nanocrystal silica fiber
for the first time, which was fabricated by the CO2 laser-heated
method assisted with optimal thermal annealing. An YPS nanocrystal
phase with an average size of approximately 38 nm is obtained by controlling
the diffusion concentration of SiO2 in the fiber core region.
Both Ce3+ and Tb3+ ions were successfully embedded
into YPS nanocrystals, which enhanced the energy transfer with an
efficiency of 59.87% between the dopants as well as brighter green
light emission. Furthermore, the X-ray-excited remote radioluminescence
response of the obtained YPS nanocrystal fiber with a length of 20
m was approximately 1 order of magnitude larger than that of the precursor
fiber, while the dose rate response exhibited excellent linearity.
It is believed that the novel transparent YPS nanocrystal-doped silica
optical fibers, combined with their excellent fluorescent properties,
could be promising candidates for scintillators, fiber lasers, and
phosphors.