Characteristic features of thermoluminescence in neodymium-doped gallium sulfide

Abstract

The thermoluminescence (TL) of neodymium-doped gallium sulfide (GaS:Nd) single crystals was measured from 10 K to room temperature with various heating rates between 0.2 and 1.0 K/sec. Two peaks centered at 70.9 K and 116.0 K were observed when using a heating rate of 0.8 K/sec. Initial rise and curve fitting methods were used to obtain information on trap activation energies. Activation energies of 94 and 216 meV were found for two analyzable peaks. The heating rate dependencies of TL intensities revealed that one of the observed peaks showed normal behavior according to the one trap-one recombination model, whereas the other model showed anomalous heating rate behavior. TL experiments were also carried out at different illumination temperatures from 10 to 32 K; maximum peak temperature remained almost the same at various illumination temperatures. This behavior indicated that the revealed trapping centers are single, discrete levels. The TL glow curves of undoped GaS crystals were also investigated and the effect of Nd doping on the TL characteristics of crystals is discussed in the manuscript.