Luminescent and structural properties of ZnxMg1-xWO4 mixed crystals

• The structural and luminescent properties of ZnxMg1-xWO4 were studied.
• The energy of Raman modes, the bandgap width, TSL peak position linearly depend on x.
• Each ZnxMg1-xWO4 possesses its original crystalline structure.

The structural and luminescent properties of perspective scintillating ZnxMg1-xWO4 mixed crystals were studied. The following characteristics were found to depend linearly on x value: the energy of several vibrational modes detected by Raman spectroscopy, the bandgap width deduced from the shift of the excitation spectrum onset of a self-trapped exciton (STE) emission, the position of thermally stimulated luminescence peaks. It is also shown that the thermal stability of the STE luminescence decreases gradually when x decreases. These data indicate that each ZnxMg1-xWO4 mixed crystal is not a mixture of two constituents, but possesses its original crystalline structure, as well as optical and luminescent properties.