Double Gain of Efficient UV-C Phosphor and Fast Scintillator Based on Pr3+-doped KY3F10 Nano-Glass Composites

Glassy phosphors offer a promising opportunity to overcome the limits of polycrystalline counterparts, thanks to their merits including excellent optical transparency, abandonment of organic binders, and capability of drawing fibers, etc. However, research and development of glassy UV-C phosphors and fast scintillators have seriously lagged behind crystals. Here, a new type of efficient UV-C phosphors and fast scintillators (double gain) is developed from Pr3+-doped transparent nano-glass composites (nano-GCs) containing KY3F10 nanocrystals. Such a material combines favorably the advantages of both crystal and glass, exhibiting intense interconfigurational 5d-4f emissions of Pr3+ upon deep-UV, high energy electron-beam and X-ray excitations. The emission profile ideally overlaps with the germicidal effectiveness curve. The Pr3+-doped nano-GCs are endowed with a radiative decay time shorter than that of extensively studied Ce3+-doped glasses and nano-GCs. They exhibit intense X-ray excited radioluminescence that is comparable to the standard Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) crystal and significantly stronger than Pr3+-doped ZBLAN fluoride glass known for the high luminescence efficiency. An X-ray imaging system with a good spatial resolution using the Pr3+-doped nano-GCs is also demonstrated.