The role of oxygen in the photostimulated luminescence process of europium doped potassium chloride

•Higher PSL intensity is obtained for dosimeters made in air than in pure nitrogen.•Shifts in emission peaks are observed for air vs. nitrogen.•All charge-storage centers are spatially correlated, suggesting the stabilization role of oxygen.•There is no improvement in temporal stability at RT for an air sample.•Oxygen improves the stability at lower temperature, for example, 50 K.

A recent suggestion that europium doped potassium chloride (KCl:Eu2+) has the potential to significantly advance the state-of-the-art in radiation therapy dosimetry has generated a renewed interest in a classic storage phosphor material. The purposes of this work are to investigate the role of oxygen in the photostimulated luminescence (PSL) process and to determine if both increased PSL yield and improved temporal stability could be realized in KCl:Eu2+ by incorporating oxygen in the material fabrication process. Regardless of synthesis atmosphere, air or pure nitrogen, PSL amplitude shows a maximum at 1.0 mol % Eu. Depending on europium concentration, dosimeters fabricated in air exhibit stronger PSL by a factor of 2–4 compared to those made in N2. There is no change in PSL stimulation spectrum while noticeable shifts in both photoluminescence and PSL emission spectra are observed for air vs. nitrogen. Almost all charge-storage centers are spatially correlated, suggesting oxygen's stabilization role in the PSL process. However, oxygen alone does not improve material's temporal stability in the first few hours post irradiation at room temperature, probably because a significant portion of radiation-induced holes are stored in the Vk centers which are mobile.