Scintillation and optical stimulated luminescence of Ce-doped CaF2

•Optical, scintillation, and OSL properties of Ce 0.1–20% doped CaF2 were studied.•Scintillation light yield exhibited inverse proportionality to Ce concentrations.•OSL intensities showed proportionality to Ce concentrations.•Complementary relation of scintillation and OSL was experimentally confirmed.

Scintillation and optical stimulated luminescence of Ce 0.1–20% doped CaF2 crystals prepared by Tokuyama Corp. were investigated. In X-ray induced scintillation spectra, luminescence due to Ce3+ 5d–4f transition appeared around 320 nm with typically 40 ns decay time. By 241Am 5.5 MeV α-ray irradiation, 0.1% doped one showed the highest scintillation light yield and the light yield monotonically decreased with Ce concentrations. Optically stimulated luminescence after X-ray irradiation was observed around 320 nm under 550 or 830 nm stimulation in all samples. As a result, intensities of optically stimulated luminescence were proportional to Ce concentrations. Consequently, scintillation and optically stimulated luminescence resulted to have a complementary relation in Ce-doped CaF2 system.