Investigations of MgO:Li,Gd thermally and optically stimulated luminescence

The purpose of this work is to investigate the thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) properties of MgO:Li,Gd synthesized by solution combustion synthesis as a function of different synthesis parameters. In addition to TL and OSL, characterization techniques include x-ray diffraction (XRD) and radioluminescence (RL). We also investigated undoped and singly-doped samples for comparison. We show that MgO:Li,Gd may serve as the basis for a new OSL material with intensity comparable to commercial Al2O3:C and narrow emission at 315 nm associated with Gd3+. Li co-doping has increased the OSL signal by several orders of magnitude when compared to MgO undoped or MgO:Gd. However, elimination of shallow trapping centers (associated with TL peaks <100–150 °C) is necessary to reduce OSL signal fading at room temperature.