Preparation, thermoluminescence and photoluminescence properties of LiF:Mg,Cu,B phosphor

This paper presents the thermoluminescence (TL), TL emission and photoluminescence (PL) properties of LiF:Mg,Cu,B (MCB) phosphor synthesized by a solid state method. The structural and morphological property was characterized by X-ray Diffraction technique and high resolution scanning electron microscope. The intensity of main dosimetric peak in MCB phosphor increases with increase in boron concentration and reaches maximum at 1.92 mol% and then decreases. Its main dosimetric peak appears at 218 °C with the linear heating rate of 2 °C/s. MCB phosphor is 12 times more sensitive than LiF:Mg,Ti and about 1.9 times less sensitive than LiF:Mg,Cu,P phosphor. A noteworthy feature is that this phosphor exhibits a linear TL dose response up to 100 Gy and then it becomes sublinear. MCB exhibits a residual signal of about 1.1%, which is very much lower compared to GR-200P. The TL emission spectra was recorded at various temperatures and analyzed. PL study shows the formation of various color centers like F2 and F3+ center in the irradiated phosphor. By combining TL emission and PL study the mechanism for observation of TL has been proposed.