Neutron detection properties of thermoluminescent Sr2B2O5:Eu ceramics

Thermoluminescent (TL) ceramic materials have been developed for neutron detection on the basis of Eu-doped Sr2B2O5. A photoluminescence emission band at around 360 nm was observed for Sr2B2O5 doped with Eu at 0.1-0.3 mol% with respect to Sr, and is attributed to 5d-4f transition of Eu2+. The emission band was also observed in the TL spectra. TL glow peaks were observed at 340, 400, and 500 K in the TL glow curves after X-ray irradiation, and Sr2B2O5 doped with Eu at 0.2 mol% exhibited the highest TL intensity. After neutron irradiation, a significant difference in the TL intensities was observed between the ceramics containing enriched 10B and 11B owing to the contribution of 10B(n,alpha)7Li reaction to the observed TL. The difference in the TL intensities linearly increased with neutron fluence of, at least, 107-1011 neutrons cm-2. Hence, we succeeded in the development of TL materials for neutron detection.