Consequences of doping Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions on the thermoluminescence dosimetry performance of the BaO-ZnO-LiF-B₂O₃-Sm₂O₃ glass system

The consequences of doping Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions on the thermoluminescence (TL) dosimetry performance of the BaO-ZnO-LiF-B₂O₃-Sm₂O₃ glass system were examined for the first time. The incorporation of Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions were found to be highly detrimental to the TL intensity, sensitivity, and trap density of the Sm³⁺ doped glass. Although Sm³⁺ ions enhanced the integrated TL intensity of the host glass by two thousand times, Sm³⁺-Er³⁺ and Sm³⁺-Yb³⁺ combinations functioned like activator-quencher systems. Contrary, the problem of anomalous loss of 50% signal after a storage week of the Sm³⁺ doped glass was effectively countered by doping Er³⁺ (2% loss) and Yb³⁺ (8% loss) ions. From the trap parameters, the elimination of some shallow traps and deepening of some existing ones was reasoned for minimizing fading. Even if the Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions adversely affected the TL intensity of the Sm³⁺ glass, they greatly improved the stability. The observations indicate that the TL dosimetry performance of a glass system can be suitably tuned by the doping/co-doping of rare-earth ions.