A highly sensitive CaF2:Dy nanophosphor as an efficient low energy ion dosimetry

Dysprosium doped calcium fluoride (CaF2:Dy) powers synthesized by co-precipitation method were irradiated with low energy ion beams (LEIB) viz. 100 keV H, 200 keV Ar and 350 keV N beams at different fluences and demonstrated for low energy ion dosimetric application. X-ray Diffraction and Transmission electron microscopy revealed the formation of highly crystalline cubic structured particles with size ∼45-50 nm. FTIR spectra of the CaF2:Dy samples show changes of some bonds such as N-O asymmetric, C-F bonding and C-H aromatic contain stretching mode after LEIB irradiation. The thermoluminescence (TL) glow curve peaks were observed at 207 °C for Ar ion, at 203 °C for H ion and at 216 °C and 270 °C for N ion. It has been found that CaF2:Dy nanophosphor shows a linear response with minimum fading for all the ion species. Computerized Glow Curve Deconvolution was performed for TL curve of high fluence ion irradiated nanophosphor to estimate the trapping parameters and the respective figure of merit (FOM) found to be very appropriate for all the nanophosphor. These results indicated that the CaF2:Dy can be used as a low energy ion detector or dose.