Luminescence properties of Tb3+-doped borosilicate scintillating glass under UV excitation

• Tb3+-doped Li2O–BaO–La2O3–Al2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glasses were prepared.
• Green emission of Tb3+ firstly increases and then decreases with decreasing B2O3/SiO2 ratio.
• 5D4 → 7FJ transitions are greatly enhanced with increasing concentration of Tb3+.
• Luminescence decay time of 2.13 ms is obtained.

Transparent Li2O–BaO–La2O3–Al2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glasses doped with Tb3+ ion were prepared by high temperature melting method. Luminescence properties of Tb3+-doped borosilicate glasses have been investigated by transmission, excitation, emission and luminescence decay measurements. The transmission spectrum shows the glass has good transmittance in the visible region. Under the 236 nm UV excitation the intense green emission from 5D4 level is observed in Tb3+-doped borosilicate glass, comparable in intensity to the violet–blue emission starting from the 5D3 level. The green emission intensity of Tb3+ ion firstly increases and then decreases with the decreasing B2O3/SiO2 ratio in glass matrix. 5D4 → 7FJ (J = 6, 5, 4 and 3) transitions of Tb3+ ion in borosilicate glass are greatly enhanced with increasing concentration of Tb3+ through the cross relaxation [Tb3+ (5D3) + Tb3+ (7F6) → Tb3+ (5D4) + Tb3+ (7F0)] between two Tb3+ ions. Luminescence decay time of 2.13 ms is obtained for the emission transitions starting from 5D4 level in 2.5Li2O–20BaO–20La2O3–2.5Al2O3–20B2O3–35SiO2–0.5Tb4O7 glass. The results show that Tb3+-doped borosilicate glasses would be potential candidates for scintillating material for static X-ray imaging.

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