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

Abstract

Ce:SrHfO 3 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:SrHfO 3 ceramics via traditional sintering method because of its orthogonal structure. In this work, Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 ceramics were prepared by long-time vacuum sintering and short-time vacuum pre-sintering combined with hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 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:SrHfO 3 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:SrHfO 3 ceramics was studied. The Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 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 Ce 3+ 5d-4f emission of Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 ceramics was observed at 400 nm, and the XEL integral intensity is 3.3 times higher than that of Bi 4 Ce 3 O 12 (BGO) crystals. The light yield of the Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 ceramics is approximately 3700 ph/MeV with the shaping time of 1 μs. Good optical quality and scintillation performance of Ce,Y:SrHfO 3 ceramics may expand the application range and potential in the field of scintillation detection.

Development and prospects of garnet ceramic scintillators: A review

“…On the other hand, the volatilization of Ga 2 O 3 above 1300 K [99] is also a severe problem in the preparation of the gallium garnet single crystals, which causes the Ga content to vary along the crystal growth direction [97,100]. Because of the development of the advanced transparent ceramic preparation technology [101][102][103][104], bulk optical ceramics have become another very important candidate for the inorganic scintillators. Especially for the garnet ceramics with a cubic structure, high optical quality comparable to that of the single crystals could be achieved, which provides more possibilities for improving the performance of the scintillation ceramics [105].…”

Compositional regulation of multi-component GYGAG:Ce scintillation ceramics: Self-sintering-aid effect and afterglow suppression

“…It also enables large volume preparation, which increases economy of all the preparation technology. Therefore, the solid-state reaction method is widely used for the preparation of scintillation ceramics including garnet [29], perovskite [30], and pyrochlore [31] structure. However, for multi-component garnet ceramics made from many kinds of oxide powders, it is difficult to achieve sufficient elemental diffusion and ceramic densification simultaneously during the reactive sintering process.…”

Fabrication and properties of multistage gradient doping Yb:YAG laser ceramics

“…In recent years, transparent ceramics have attracted extensive attention in many fields because of their excellent physical and chemical properties, easy to realize batch and large‐scale sample preparation 16–20 . Especially, it has a great advantage over crystals in the design and preparation of materials of composite structure 21,22 .…”

“…[13][14][15] In recent years, transparent ceramics have attracted extensive attention in many fields because of their excellent physical and chemical properties, easy to realize batch and large-scale sample preparation. [16][17][18][19][20] Especially, it has a great advantage over crystals in the design and preparation of materials of composite structure. 21,22 The main method of making composite structure crystals is thermal bonding technology, which requires laser-level polished surfaces with high surface parallelism and high cleanliness.…”