Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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Abstract
Intense photostimulated luminescence (PSL) is observed,
for the first time, in X-ray-irradiated KBr:Eu and KCl,Br,.
,:Eu phosphor ceramics. The peak in the stimulation
spectrum for the PSL red-shifted with increasing the Br
content of KC1,Brl.,:Eu phosphor ceramics. The intensity of
the PSL with a peak of about 420 nm increases linearly with
increasing X-ray irradiation dose over a wide range. The
KBr:Eu phosphor exhibites excellent fading characteristics at
room temperature (RT) in the dark. The mechanism of
fading of the PSL is also discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION
Photostimulated luminescence (PSL) phenomenon is based
on the presence of electron andor hole traps and
luminescence centers in storage phosphor materials. During
exposure to X-rays, the traps are occupied with charged
carriers such as electrons and holes that are created by x-ray
irradiation. Detrapping of these carriers requires energy.
The energy is provided by stimulating the phosphor material
with visible or infrared light. During a detrapping transition,
free carriers created by the absorption of photons from the
stimulating radiation field, recombine with the luminescence
centers, whereby visible photons (PSL) are emitted. Since
the PSL intensity is in the most cases proportional to dose of
X-rays, the phosphor materials which exhibit the PSL
phenomenon offer an alternative to conventional X-ray
radiography, which consists of a photographic film and an
intensifying screen. These phosphor materials adapt to
digital radiography systems which are based on the
conversion of the X-ray image pattern into digital signals
utilizing laser beam scanning of a photostimulable phosphor
imaging plate (IP).
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KCI,Br,.,:Eu
X-ray IRRAD.
11. EXPERIMENTAL
Each powder mixture of reagent grade KCl and KBr
containing various content (0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mol%) of
Eu20306H20powder was pressed into discs at 6 tons for 10
min. The discs with 13 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness
were sintered at about 7000 for 3 hours in air [6]. X-rayirradiation was carried out at room temperature (RT) in the
dark with tungsten-target tube operated at 20-40 kV and 2-20
mA.
The PSL emission spectra and photoluminescence (PL)
spectra were observed using a Hitachi F-3010
spectrofluorometer at RT. The PSL and PL spectra were
corrected for the diffraction efficiency of grating and the
optical response of the photomultiplier.
400
600
700
W A V E L E N G T H @ [nm]
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400
500
600
700
W A V E L E N G T H e [nm]
200
800
300
400
W A V E L E N G T H @ [nm]
500
Fig. 1 PSL emission spectrum and its stimulation spectra of X-ray- , Fig. 3 Typical PL emission spectrum and its excitation spectrum for
KC1:Eu phosphor sample.
irradiated.
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better than that with high humidity. One can expect that this
is due to the deliquescence of alkali halides.
Figure 10 shows the dependence of the fading
characteristics of the KBr:Eu phosphor sample on the
irradiated X-ray energies. The characteristics for UV
irradiation is also shown in the figure. It should be noted that
the fading characteristics become poor with decreasing the
energy of irradiated X-rays. This result shows that the fading
characteristics near the surface of phosphor is poor due to the
effect of humidity, that is, in the irradiation using low energy
X-rays the F centers as the electron traps create near the
surface of the phosphor and these electron traps are affected
by the humidity, because the almost of low energy X-rays is
absorbed near the surface of phosphor. But, there are no
problem [10],[11] because the energy of X-rays used in
practical medical image measurements is about 70-120kV, of
which energy is higher than 40kV showing good fading
characteristics as shown in Fig. 10.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
I
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20
60
40
0 40[kV],20[mA]
0 30[kV],16[mA]
0 20[kV],2[mA]
8 UVIRRAD.
V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Prof. M.Takebe and Prof. K.Abe of
Tohoku University, Prof. K.Inabe and S.Taniguchi of
Kanazawa University for their fruitful discussion and
N.Kashiwagi, Y.Oda, Y.Noguchi, Y.Hayashi, H.Shin,
T.Minato and T.Yasue for their excellent technical assistance
in the experiments. This work was partly supported by a
Grant-inAid for Scientific Research (No.08875014 and
09558060) and the foundation for High-Tech Research
Center from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
of Japan.
20
40
60
TIME AFTER IRRADIATION@ [min]
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VI. REFERENCES
[ l ] K.Takahashi, J.Miyahara and Y.Shibahara,
"Photostimulated Luminescence (PSL) and Color
Centers in BaFX:Eu (X=Cl,Br) Phosphors", J.
Electrochem. Soc., ~01.132,pp.1492-1494, 1985.
[ 2 ] K.Amitani, K.Kano, H.Tsuchiya and F.Shimada, "X-ray
imaging system utilizing new photostimulable
phosphors", Advanced Printing Paper Summaries of
the 26th Fall Symp. on SPSEs Conf. And Exhibition
on Electronic Imaging, San Diego, California, pp. 180183, 1986.
[3] Y.Amemiya and J.Miyahara, "Imaging plate illuminates
many fields, Nature, vo1.336, pp. 89-90, 1988.
[4] H.Nanto, "Optically Stimulated Luminescence Application to Optical Memory and Imaging Sensor for
Ionizing Radiation", Kotai Butsuri, vol. 28, pp. 49-58,
1993.
[5] H.Nanto, "Photostimulated Luminescence in Insulators
and Semiconductors", Radiation Effects and Defects in
Solids, vo1.146, pp.311-321, 1998.
[6] H.Nanto, Y.Hirai, F.Endo, M.Ikeda, S.Nasu and
N.Takeuchi, "KC1:Eu Phosphors as a Storage Materials
for Two-Dimensional X-ray or UV-ray Imaging
Sensor", Tech. Digest of The 12th Sensor Symp.,
pp.51-54, 1994.
[7]
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