Thermoluminescence properties of Cu doped α-Al2O3 crystals synthesized by a solid state method

While impurity doping in aluminum oxide (Al2O3) crystals has proven to be an efficient approach to enhance the material response to ionizing and nonionizing radiations, significantly less attention has been paid to thermo-luminescence (TL) properties of copper doped Al2O3 (Al2O3:Cu) compounds. Here, Al2O3 microparticles (MPs) are synthesized and doped with different concentrations of Cu (0.1-1 mol%) using a solid state method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the morphology and size of the synthesized MPs. The crystal structure and composition of the alpha-Al2O3 sample were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray energy diffraction (EDX) analyses, respectively. The optimal amount of impurity for the maximum TL response to gamma rays of 60Co source was found to be 0.5 mol%. The kinetic parameters of the TL glow curve of the prepared samples were calculated by a computer fitting method. Also, the isothermal decay and variable heating rate methods were used to determine the activation energy and the frequency factor of the TL glow curve. Other TL properties of these MPs, including the TL glow curve, extinction and linear dose response region were also investigated.