Light attenuation and loss in Ce3+-doped dense glass scintillator

For nuclear radiation detection and HEP experiments, glass scintillators with high transparency and high stability have been considered as potential alternatives. Due to the amorphous metastable structure and a large number of internal defects, the performance of glass scintillators is inferior to that of crystals. There is little research on the attenuation length and light loss coeffcient of glass scintillators due to amorphous structure. Ce3+-doped gadolinium aluminoborosilicate glass scintillator (GLx glass) was synthesized using high-temperature melting method in a N2/H2 reducing atmosphere and processed to different thicknesses. Optical and scintillation properties of the glasses under different thicknesses were investigated. As the thickness of the glasses increases, their cut-off edge of transmission spectra and X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) peak gradually red shift. The difference between theoretical and actual light attenuation lengths was compared. The actual light attenuation length around its luminescence peak is 2.3 +/- 0.01 cm of GLx glass with a light yield of 1000 ph/MeV. The intrinsic light yield and light loss coefficient of the GLx glass were calculated. Its intrinsic light yield is 1583 +/- 37 ph/MeV with a light loss coefficient of 0.57 +/- 0.04 cm-1. Besides, the scintillation characteristics of the glasses exhibits fast (in range of 160-200 ns) and slow (in range of 440-480 ns) components.