Improvement and luminescent mechanism of Bi4Si3O12 scintillation crystals by Dy3+ doping

Bi4Si3O12:Dy (BSO:Dy) crystals have been grown by the modified vertical Bridgeman method and doping effects on light yield have been investigated. Doped with small amount of Dy2O3 (0.05–0.3 mol%), the light yield and energy resolution of BSO crystals were improved significantly. However, high concentrations of Dy2O3 doping resulted in the decrease of light yield. Pulse height measurement under γ-ray irradiation shows that 0.1 mol% Dy2O3 doping can make the relative light yield of BSO from 24.6% to 35.8% of BGO crystal, with fast decay time of ~90 ns. X-ray excited radioluminescence spectra showed Dy doping has an extra emission in the host emission band (Bi3+ emission) and acts as a sensitizer to the Bi luminescent center. These results indicate that BSO:Dy crystal could be one of promising candidates for replacing BGO in some application such as electromagnetic calorimeter and dual readout in nuclear or high energy physics.