Improvement of the scintillating properties of ZnO ceramics by the precipitation of initial powder

Abstract

One of the applications of zinc oxide is a scintillator or phosphor. Both of its emission bands, fast near-band-edge or slow green luminescence, can be used, depending on the application. In any case it is essential to obtain the sample of high transparency in the range of a certain luminescence band. In this work ceramic samples made of undoped ZnO micro- and nanocrystalline powders, where the latter was made by precipitation of initial micro-crystalline powder, were studied. Ceramics showed significant differences in their optical and luminescent properties. The reasons for observed changes are discussed.