Thermoluminescence of Y₂O₃:Tb³⁺ thin films deposited by electron beam evaporation

Most thermoluminescent materials are created using crystal growth techniques; however, it would be of great utility to identify those few thermoluminescent materials that can be deposited using simpler methods, for example to be compatible with the early portions of a silicon integrated circuit or microelectromechanical fabrication process. In this work, thin films of yttrium oxide with a terbium impurity (Y₂O₃:Tb) were deposited on silicon wafers by electron beam evaporation. The source for the Y₂O₃:Tb was made by combining Y₂O₃ and Tb₄O₇ powders. The approximate thicknesses of the deposited films were 350 nm. After deposition, the films were annealed at 1100 C for 30 s to improve crystallinity. There is a strong correlation between the x-ray diffraction (XRD) peak intensity and the thermoluminescent glow curve intensity. The glow curve displays at least two peaks at 140 C and 230 C. The emission spectra was measured using successive runs with a monochromator set to a different wavelength for each run. There are two main emission peaks at 490 nm and 540 nm. The terbium impurity concentration of approximately 1 mol% was measured using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). The Y ₂O₃:Tb is sensitive to UV, x-ray, and gamma radiation. The luminescent intensity per unit mass of UV irradiated Y₂O ₃:Tb was about 2 times that of x-ray irradiated TLD-100.