Mechanosynthesis route of europium doped strontium thiogallate for ion detection diagnosis in nuclear fusion reactors
VIDELA-TREVIN M. 1,2, VIEZZER E. 1,3, GARCIA-MUNOZ M. 1,3, FERRER F. 1,3, BALU K. 2, SEPÚLVEDA R. 2, CHICARDI E. 2
1 National Centre of Accelerators (CNA), Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain; 2 Department of Engineering and Material Science and Transportation, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain; 3 Department of Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain
Luminescence or scintillation materials are used in nuclear fusion devices as active components for ion detection, for example, in the Fast Ion Loss Detector (FILD) [1].
The most extended scintillation material is the europium doped strontium thiogallate (SrGa2S4:Eu2+), commercially known as TG-Green. In comparison with other scintillators, TG-Green showed the best detection efficiency (emitted photons) when irradiated with light ions (deuterium, protons and alpha particles) in an energy range of 1 to 3 MeV [2].
However, its availability in the market is very scarce, cost is excessively high, and the purity is always compromised by the presence of different subproducts. In addition, its synthesis usually involves the use of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) toxic gas and /or complex reactions [3].
In this work, we developed a simple, reproducible, and economic solid-state mechanosynthesis route to synthesize the SrGa2S4:Eu2+ with high purity. A complete chemical, physical and microstructural characterization demonstrate the formation of the orthorhombic structure expected, judged by DRX and TEM analysis. Furthermore, ionoluminescent measurements are made in a 3 MV tandem accelerator to characterize the luminescent efficiency of the material, showing the synthesized scintillator analogous efficiency to the commercial TG-Green.
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[3] Na, S. H., Cho, Y. S., Do, Y. R., & Huh, Y. D. (2013). Preparation and photoluminescence of green-Emitting phosphors SrGa 2S4:Eu. Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 34(12), 3919–3922. https://doi.org/10.5012/bkcs.2013.34.12.3919