Effect of Rare-Earth Co-Doping on the Trap Level Concentrations in Silica Glasses: Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Light Emission Under X-Rays for Dosimetry Applications

International audience ; In this paper, an experimental and theoretical study was undertaken to assess the impact of rare-earth co-doping of silica glasses on the light emission under X-rays. To this aim, radioluminescence (RL), phosphorescence (PP), and thermoluminescence (TL) signals of Ce3+/Gd3+ co-doped silica glasses have been successively measured and combined at different dose rates and irradiation temperatures. The RL response of the weakly co-doped sample was found to be temperature-independent between 273 K and 353 K. This result suggests that, based on this RL response, it is possible to design ionizing radiation sensors independent of the irradiation temperature in the corresponding range. Moreover, a model that considers the electron–hole pair generation, the charge carrier trapping–detrapping, and the electron–hole recombination in the localized and delocalized bands has been developed to reproduce these optical signals. The theoretical model also explains the temperature independence of the RL response between 273 K and 353 K for the weakly co-doped sample and, therefore, the operating principle of an X-ray sensor independent of the irradiation temperature.