Displacement damage from particle radiation in yttrium borate phosphor doped with cerium(III) or europium(III)

Author-Highlights•Lattice damage from 5 MeV alpha irradiation cannot be detected up to a fluence of 1016 cm−2 in YBO:Ce or YBO:Eu.•Lattice damage from 1 MeV protons in YBO:Ce and YBO:Eu is significant and can be detected using PL.•The Eu-doped samples appear to be slightly more sensitive to protons than Ce-doped samples of YBO, which is contrary to our original hypothesis.•The degradation is likely due to changes in the of the lattice rather than quenching of the luminescent centers.

This study investigates whether particle irradiation of yttrium borate doped with cerium(III) (YBO3:1%Ce3+) and yttrium borate doped with europium(III) (YBO3:6%Eu3+) can cause displacement damage and whether photoluminescent emission changes with the radiation dose. Although phosphors scintillate upon irradiation, of more interest in this study are the permanent changes caused by non-ionizing energy absorption, which alters the environment of the luminescent centers and thus the luminescence. Photoluminescence spectroscopy indicates that the emission intensity of both YBO3:1%Ce3+ and YBO3:6%Eu3+ decreases with increasing proton fluence. The sensitivity of changes in the emission intensity to proton fluence is 5 times more in the europium-doped samples than in the cerium-doped samples.