Thermoluminescence characteristics of terbium doped zinc borates

Abstract

In this work, structural and thermoluminescence (TL) characteristics for ZnB2O4:xTb(3+) (x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, and 0.10 mole) phosphors were investigated. The phosphors were prepared via synthesis of nitric acid. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that the synthesized samples can be indexed to nearly single-phase cubic ZnB2O4. The TL characteristics following Sr-90 beta irradiation (40 mCi) were studied. TL intensity is found to depend on Tb concentration. The optimal concentration of the doped Tb3+ is 0.03 mol in TL measurements. TL dose responses of the phosphors to beta doses of 0.143, 0.715, 1.43, 15, 30 and 60 Gy showed fairly linear behavior. The minimum detectable dose (MDD) value for ZnB2O4:0.04Tb(3+) was found to be 87 mGy. The kinetic parameters of the ZnB2O4:0.03Tb(3+) sample were estimated by the glow curve deconvolution, the initial rise, the curve fitting, and the peak shape methods. The results indicate that these phosphors are thought to be promising candidates as TL materials. The results provide valuable knowledge of the characteristics of Tb-doped ZnB2O4 for use in dosimetry research.