Luminescence properties of Er3+ doped high density germanate glass scintillators for X-ray computed tomography (CT)

Er3+ doped high density germanate glasses with compositions of 50GeO2-10BaO-10Al2O3-15Lu2O3-(15-x) La2O3- xEr2O3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0, in mol%) have been prepared by the melt-quenching method. The optical and physical properties of the samples were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), density, transmittance spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) spectra. The densities were in the range from 5.90 to 6.07 g/cm3. The strong green emissions around 552 nm of Er3+ were observed upon the excitations of 378 nm light and the X-ray, and the lifetimes of 552 nm emission were in the range of 20.88-96.47 mu s. The results show that Er3+ doped high density germanate glasses could be used as potential scintillators for X-ray CT.