Temperature dependence of photoluminescence in ZnO-containing glasses

ZnO-SiO2-BaO(BaF2) glasses are studied in the search for a novel scintillating material. Photoluminescence of such glasses was measured within 8-300 K including the decay kinetics and also the XPS spectra were obtained on selected samples to have information about Zn-O-Si bonding in the glass. Glass emission occurs in the violet-blue spectral range and decay kinetics is governed by the decay times of hundreds ns - units μs. XPS measurements reveal the higher binding energy of the Zn2P electron and the lower kinetic energy of the Auger Zn L3M4,5M4,5 electron, as well as the lower binding energy of the Si2P electron, which implies the participation of Zn2+ cations in the glass network to form the Zn-O-Si bond.