Journal of Inorganic Materials ›› 2021, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (10): 1118-1124.DOI: 10.15541/jim20210059

• RESEARCH LETTER • Previous Articles    

Fine-grained Ce,Y:SrHfO3 Scintillation Ceramics Fabricated by Hot Isostatic Pressing

ZHU Danyang1,2(), QIAN Kang1,3, CHEN Xiaopu1,2, HU Zewang1,2, LIU Xin1,2, LI Xiaoying1,2, PAN Yubai3, MIHÓKOVÁ Eva4, NIKL Martin4, LI Jiang1,2()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China
    2. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronic Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China, 4. Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague 16200, Czech Republic
  • Received:2021-02-01 Revised:2021-03-29 Published:2021-10-20 Online:2021-05-10
  • Contact: LI Jiang, professor. E-mail: lijiang@mail.sic.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFB0310500);National Natural Science Foundation of China(61775226);CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative(E00YGH21);Operational Programme Research, Development and Education financed by European Structural and Investment Funds and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports(SOLID21 CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000760)

Abstract:

Ce:SrHfO3 ceramics possess a strong stopping power to high-energy rays due to their high density and high effective atomic number. However, it is difficult to obtain transparent Ce:SrHfO3 ceramics via traditional sintering method because of its orthogonal structure. In this work, Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics were prepared by long-time vacuum sintering and short-time vacuum pre-sintering combined with hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The Ce,Y:SrHfO3 powders with a pure phase and a mean particle size of 152 nm were prepared by calcining at 1200 ℃ for 8 h using metal oxides and carbonates. The Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics vacuum-sintered at 1800 ℃ for 20 h are opaque with an average grain size of 28.6 μm, while those prepared by the two-step sintering method show good optical transmittance. The evolution of the microstructure in the process of densification was analyzed in detail, and the influence of the pre-sintering temperature on the density, microstructure and optical transparency of Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics was studied. The Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics pre-sintered at 1500 ℃ for 2 h with HIP post-treatment at 1800 ℃ for 3 h have the highest in-line transmittance of 21.6% at 800 nm with a far smaller average grain size of 3.4 μm. Under X-ray excitation, the Ce3+ 5d-4f emission of Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics was observed at 400 nm, and the XEL integral intensity is 3.3 times higher than that of Bi4Ce3O12 (BGO) crystals. The light yield of the Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics is approximately 3700 ph/MeV with the shaping time of 1 μs. Good optical quality and scintillation performance of Ce,Y:SrHfO3 ceramics may expand the application range and potential in the field of scintillation detection.

Key words: Ce, Y:SrHfO3 ceramics, hot isostatic pressing, microstructure, grain refinement, scintillation properties

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