Phosphors for Radiation Detectors

11Luminescence in Glass‐Based Materials by Ionizing Radiation

Hirokazu Masai and Kenji Shinozaki

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ikeda, Japan

11.1 Introduction

Glasses are abundant in nature and have been made by humankind for over 3000 years. Since glass possesses various excellent characteristics, such as the transparency, chemical durability, thermal stability, hardness, and a wide range of chemical compositions, it is one of the fundamental materials in our daily lives. Glass has evolved from a basic structural material, such as window glass, to an enabling material for use in advanced electronic, biological, and photonic products, for example optical fibers and glass covers for smartphones. The notable advantage of glass materials is their ability to be mass produced, with relatively cheaper fabrication costs compared with other single crystalline substances. On the other hand, because glass lacks a long‐range structural order without grain boundary, various shapes of optical materials can be prepared. Good formability is also the reason why glass materials are so widely used in industry. It could be said that our life cannot be established without glass materials.

One of the applications of glass materials is that of optical functional materials, owing to its good transparency and good formability. Conventional oxide glass, such SiO₂ glass, exhibits a good transparency window from the visible to UV region. On the other hand, chalcogenide ...