Thermally stimulated luminescence and persistent luminescence of β-irradiated YAG:Pr3+ nanophosphors produced by combustion synthesis

In this work, the thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) and persistent luminescence (PLUM) properties of praseodymium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Pr3+) exposed to β-irradiation are reported. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms a single phase of YAG obtained by the combustion method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows that powder particles appear to be irregular crystals with an average size of 67 nm. TSL glow-curve deconvolution of YAG:Pr3+ after β-irradiation consist in six peaks centered at 394, 450, 467, 543, 637 and 705 K. The TSL fading and PLUM signals were found to be associated with at least with two different kinds of traps, corresponding to the peaks located at 394, 450 and 467 K. YAG:Pr3+ nanophosphors analyzed in this work showed interesting features about the dosimetric sensitivity as well as the reproducibility for both TSL/PLUM techniques, with good linearity dose response. These results indicate that nanocrystalline YAG:Pr3+ is a good candidate for dosimetric applications in the range of 80 mGy-20 Gy.