Glass‐ZnS:Ag scintillating composite for radiation detection

Abstract

Neutrons are widely used in national defense, security, and medical health fields. It is critical to realize neutron detection with high efficiency. The most popular neutron detection scintillators such as lithium glass and 6LiF/ZnS:Ag screen exhibit insurmountable limitations: the former usually has relatively rather low light yield and latter is opaque. In this research, we report the successful construction of the novel full inorganic composite scintillators by low temperature co‐firing technology. The composite scintillator is derived from the ZnS:Ag and borate glass matrix, and it shows better transparency compared with the standard 6LiF/ZnS:Ag screen. It exhibits excellent scintillation properties with the X‐ray induced emission intensity of these composite scintillators reaching approximately 2.46 times of the standard Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) crystal. The light output under thermal neutron excitation can reach 75 000 photons/neutron. In addition, it presents excellent neutron detection performance with natural abundance of 10B isotope. Our research findings can serve as a valuable reference for the advancement of robust neutron detection materials, particularly in the domain of ZnS:Ag‐based full inorganic scintillator for neutron detection.