Abstract With the aim of finding promising neutron scintillators, different compositions have been synthesized in the glassy phase and subsequently characterized for their performance as the scintillation screen of thermal neutron imaging systems. Three new compositions having Li, B, and Gd as principal constituents, doped with Eu have been synthesized by the melt quenching method and investigated the first time for neutron imaging in the present study. The concentration of luminescent activator, Eu3+ has been optimized by performing X-ray induced emission of these glass samples. Beam purity investigation along with the luminescence ability of the commercial screen have been also performed prior to the thorough evaluation of the thermal neutron scintillation characteristics of the compositions. The glass samples have been exposed to thermal neutrons for 5 and 10 min separately at the beam port of the research reactor for their performances in conventional direct film neutron radiography technique. The glasses containing Gd have been found to have higher light yield due to energy transfer from Gd ions to Eu activators. However, the composition of 60Li2O3:10Y2O3:28.5B2O3:1.5Eu2O3 (mol%) has been observed to have low light but good thermal neutron discrimination property from the gamma background despite having lesser X-ray luminescence among all three.

中文翻译：

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用于热中子闪烁和成像的硼酸盐玻璃的合成与表征

摘要 为了寻找有前景的中子闪烁体，在玻璃相中合成了不同的成分，并随后表征了它们作为热中子成像系统闪烁屏的性能。三种以 Li、B 和 Gd 为主要成分、掺杂 Eu 的新组合物已通过熔体淬火法合成，并在本研究中首次研究了中子成像。通过对这些玻璃样品进行 X 射线诱导发射，已经优化了发光活化剂 Eu3+ 的浓度。在对组合物的热中子闪烁特性进行彻底评估之前，还进行了光束纯度调查以及商业屏幕的发光能力。玻璃样品已在研究堆的束口分别暴露于热中子 5 分钟和 10 分钟，以验证它们在传统直接薄膜中子射线照相技术中的性能。由于能量从 Gd 离子转移到 Eu 活化剂，已发现含有 Gd 的玻璃具有更高的光输出。然而，已观察到 60Li2O3:10Y2O3:28.5B2O3:1.5Eu2O3 (mol%) 的组成具有低光但具有良好的热中子识别特性，尽管在所有三者中具有较小的 X 射线发光。