Influence of neutron/gamma irradiation on damage and scintillation of Ga-doped ZnO thin films. (January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shao, Zhuang; Cai, Ziqi; Zhu, Haoran; Guo, Haoxuan; Chen, Haizheng; Yang, Fan; Song, Xiaojing; Li, Jiaming; Zhang, Qingmin
• Is Part Of: Radiation measurements. Volume 160(2022)
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Subjects: ZnO:Ga -- Neutron/gamma radiation -- Radiation damage -- Effective light output; Nuclear emulsions -- Periodicals; Particle tracks (Nuclear physics) -- Periodicals; Thermoluminescence -- Periodicals; Cosmic rays -- Periodicals; Radiation -- Measurement -- Periodicals; Radiometry -- Periodicals; Radiation Monitoring -- Periodicals; Émulsions nucléaires -- Périodiques; Particules (Physique nucléaire) -- Traces -- Périodiques; Thermoluminescence -- Périodiques; Rayonnement cosmique -- Périodiques; Radiométrie -- Périodiques; 539.77
• DOI: 10.1016/j.radmeas.2022.106894
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-4487

Abstract

Abstract: As a new type of inorganic scintillator, ZnO crystal doped with Ga has been used for Ultra-fast scintillating detectors with fast response to detect X-ray, gamma, neutron, and charged particles. Moreover, due to the large bandgap energy and high threshold displacement energy, ZnO: Ga has a strong radiation resistance in theory. However, there is a lack of experimental studies on the change of scintillation properties of ZnO: Ga under an intense irradiation environment. This study deposited thin Ga-doped ZnO films on α-Al2 O3 (0001) substrate by dual-target reactive magnetron sputtering. The ZnO: Ga samples were irradiated by neutrons from 10 10 to 7.1 × 10 14 neutrons/cm 2 (1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence) and γ rays from 500 to 10, 000 Gy, respectively. The structural and optical properties of all irradiated samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical transmittance (TS), and effective light output at room temperature. The results indicated that all the irradiated samples are still in both hexagonal wurtzite structure and c-axis orientation. Compared with unirradiated samples, it is found that the samples' optical transmittance, energy resolution, and effective light output have little change due to irradiation, which has fully proved that the ZnO: Ga scintillation films have good radiation resistance under neutron and gamma irradiation. Hence, ZnO: Ga is an attractive candidate for radiation detectors with ultra-fast responses under extreme radiation environments. Highlights: The thin ZnO:Ga films were prepared by dual-target reactive magnetron sputtering. The samples were irradiated by different fluences/doses of neutrons/gamma rays. All samples were investigated by XRD, TEM, optical transmittance, and light output. The samples' scintillation performance have little change due to irradiation.