Co-doping effects in CdWO4 scintillator thin films as alpha counters: Ag and Gd cases

Heydarian Dehkordi, Nooshin; Raeisi, Morteza; Alamdari, Sanaz

doi:10.22036/ncr.2024.427123.1346

Co-doping effects in CdWO4 scintillator thin films as alpha counters: Ag and Gd cases

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Department of Nanotechnology, Faculty of New Science and Technologies, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran

³ Department of Nanotechnology, Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

10.22036/ncr.2024.427123.1346

Abstract

The flexible CdWO₄ (CWO)-20 wt. % polyester (PES) and CWO: 0.5 at. % Ag, 0.5 at. % Gd (co-doped CWO)-20 wt. % PES thin films were prepared by direct mixing technique. The composition of thin films was studied by EDAX analysis. FE-SEM and EDAX-map images exhibited a uniform distribution of CWO and co-doped CWO nanoparticles (NPs) in PES. The precision of the Monte Carlo technique for the computation of alpha particle trajectories in CWO-20wt. % PES and co-doped CWO-20wt. % PES thin films were 55 and 53 µm, respectively, which approximately agreed with FE-SEM images. The band gap energy of co-doped CWO increased based on DRS results. The scintillation responses of thin films were investigated using a ²⁴¹Am source. Co-doping increased the absolute counting efficiency (up to 74%) and decreased the energy resolution (up to 39 %). The mechanical properties, transparency, and gloss of nanocomposites were also investigated. The results indicate that the manufactured nanocomposites could be promising candidates for ionizing radiation detectors, radiometric monitoring, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

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