Detection of environmental ultraviolet radiation by the inducedelectroluminescence in a ceramic detector

摘要

Environmental ultraviolet (UV) radiation can be detected passivelyby a ceramic sensor with the method of recording the radiation inducedelectroluminescence (EL). The phenomenon that metal-oxide ceramicmaterial doped with certain impurities can emit photons under highelectric field after the irradiation of UV has been found in ourlaboratory. This phenomenon of EL can only exist when the sensor hasbeen irradiated by UV radiation. After the emission of photons, thesensor material returns to the normal state and no more photon will beemitted even electric field is applied again unless it is irradiated byUV again. The emitted light may have different wavelengths dependent onthe base material of the sensor and the impurity, and the peak height ofthe EL curve represents the number of radiation induced-photons which isdirectly in proportion to the exposure of the UV radiation. Theradiation-induced EL can thus be used to detect UV radiation. UV-inducedEL in ZrO₂ with zinc oxide as impurity has been investigated.Other base materials such as Gd₂O₃ and MgO arealso considered