Mixed influence of copper and some f-block elements on thermoluminescence intensity of CaSO4: Dy, P phosphors  

¹Department of Physics, R.T.M. Nagpur University, Nagpur 440033, India 

²Department of Chemistry, Sevadal Mahila Mahavidhyalaya, Nagpur 440009, India   

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2014, 5 (1), pp 52-58

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2013.6488

Publication Date (Web): Dec 28, 2013

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: sjdhoble@rediffmail.com

Abstract

Very little data on copper co-doped CaSO₄: Dy and CaSO₄: Dy, P phosphors seems to have been reported so far. In the present study the influence of copper and rare earths co-doping on thermoluminescence intensity of CaSO₄: Dy, P phosphor has been investigated. Acid evaporation re-crystallization method was adopted for the synthesis purpose. Phosphors were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) techniques. Results obtained through this study are of mixed nature. In some cases, TL intensity is either greater or nearly equal to standard CaSO4: Dy while in other cases it is half or rather weak in comparison to standard CaSO4: Dy phosphor. Copper was found to suppress temperature peak structure above 300 ^oC. SEM micrographs of CaSO4: P, Dy, Cu, RE phosphors show that the particle size is in the micrometer range, 1 to 5 µm approximately. The systematic study carried out in this work is solely novel as no such report existed before. From this study it is clear now that by co-doping multi-impurities simultaneously to enhance TL characteristics of CaSO4: Dy phosphor is no longer useful because it proved otherwise.

Keywords

Copper, glow curve, thermoluminescence, phosphor