• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.43-50
• /
• 1995

Eu or Fe doped BGO scintillation crystals were grown by Czochralski method. In order to get information about traps in the grown BGO crystals, we measured trap parameters including activation energy, frequency factor and the kinetic order of thermoluminescence, and compared such parameters with thermoluminescent characteristics of pure BGO scintillation crystals. In addition, optical transmittance of the grown BGO crystals was measured.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.16-23
• /
• 1997

Bismuth germanate crystals well known as scintillator were grown by Czochralski method. In order to understand a mechanism of radiation resistance in Eu-doped BGO, we measured radiation induced-absorption spectra, excitation spectra, emission spectra and luminescence lifetimes of BGO crystals. We found that the charge transfer state of $Eu^{3+}$ ion is to play a key role to enhance the radiation resistance in BGO crystal. The $^{5}D_{0}$ emission of $Eu^{3+}$ ions that is not suitable for the radiation detectors due to a long decay time was found to be increased with increasing europium concentration. In the BGO crystal doped with 0.1 mole%, the density of radiation induced color centers was reduced about twenty times and the light output of $^{5}D_{0}$ was negligible by comparing to that of BGO.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.83-86
• /
• 2009

The single crystal scintillator of bismuth germinate ($Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}$:BGO) was successfully grown by the conventional Czochraski technique. The characteristics of the grown BGO were evaluated and presented on the excitation, emission responses and energy spectra of the $\gamma$-rays from $^{241}Am$, $^{133}Ba$, $^{57}Co$, $^{22}Na$, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{54}Mn$ radio-isotopes. The energy resolution of grown BGO, $\Delta$E/E, was estimated to be 12.1% at 662 keV of $\gamma$-ray for $^{137}Cs$ nuclide. Compared to the commercial BGO crystal, we confirmed that the grown BGO has a good performance and is comparable to reference one.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.214-225
• /
• 2022

Background: The conventional cerium-doped Gd₂Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ (GAGG(Ce)) scintillator-based gamma-ray imager has a bulky detector, which can lead to incorrect positioning of the gammaray source if the shielding against background radiation is not appropriately designed. In addition, portability is important in complex environments such as inside nuclear power plants, yet existing gamma-ray imager based on a tungsten mask tends to be weighty and therefore difficult to handle. Motivated by the need to develop a system that is not sensitive to background radiation and is portable, we changed the material of the scintillator and the coded aperture. Materials and Methods: The existing GAGG(Ce) was replaced with Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO), a scintillator with high gamma-ray detection efficiency but low energy resolution, and replaced the tungsten (W) used in the existing coded aperture with lead (Pb). Each BGO scintillator is pixelated with 144 elements (12 × 12), and each pixel has an area of 4 mm × 4 mm and the scintillator thickness ranges from 5 to 20 mm (5, 10, and 20 mm). A coded aperture consisting of Pb with a thickness of 20 mm was applied to the BGO scintillators of all thicknesses. Results and Discussion: Spectroscopic characterization, imaging performance, and image quality evaluation revealed the 10 mm-thick BGO scintillators enabled the portable gamma-ray imager to deliver optimal performance. Although its performance is slightly inferior to that of existing GAGG(Ce)-based gamma-ray imager, the results confirmed that the manufacturing cost and the system's overall weight can be reduced. Conclusion: Despite the spectral characteristics, imaging system performance, and image quality is slightly lower than that of GAGG(Ce), the results show that BGO scintillators are preferable for gamma-ray imaging systems in terms of cost and ease of deployment, and the proposed design is well worth applying to systems intended for use in areas that do not require high precision.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.10 no.5
• /
• pp.337-341
• /
• 2016

We measured the neutron capture cross-section of natural Sm(n,${\gamma}$) reaction in the energy regions from 0.003 to 10 eV. The 46-MeV electron linear accelerator of Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University was used for generating a continuous neutron source. The neutron time-of-flight method was adopted for energy measurement. An assembly of BGO($Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}$) scintillators composed of 12 pieces of BGO crystals measured prompt gamma rays from Sm(n,${\gamma}$) reaction. The BGO assembly was located at a distance of $12.7{\pm}0.02m$ from the neutron source. In order to determine the neutron flux impinging on the Sm, the $^{10}B(n,{\alpha}{\gamma})^7Li$ standard cross-section were used. Natural Sm(n,${\gamma}$) reaction measurement result of the neutron capture cross-section was compared with the results of evaluation of the BROND-2.2 and the previous experimental data of J. C. Chou and V. N. Kononov.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.222-228
• /
• 2016

Background: We are developing a small size dosimeter for dose estimation in particle therapies. The developed dosimeter is an optical fiber based dosimeter mounting an radiation induced luminescence material, such as an OSL or a scintillator, at a tip. These materials generally suffer from the quenching effect under high LET particle irradiation. Materials and Methods: We fabricated two types of the small size dosimeters. They used an OSL material Eu:BaFBr and a BGO scintillator. Carbon ions were irradiated into the fabricated dosimeters at Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). The small size dosimeters were set behind the water equivalent acrylic phantom. Bragg peak was observed by changing the phantom thickness. An ion chamber was also placed near the small size dosimeters as a reference. Results and Discussion: Eu:BaFBr and BGO dosimeters showed a Bragg peak at the same thickness as the ion chamber. Under high LET particle irradiation, the response of the luminescence-based small size dosimeters deteriorated compared with that of the ion chamber due to the quenching effect. We confirmed the luminescence efficiency of Eu:BaFBr and BGO decrease with the LET. The reduction coefficient of luminescence efficiency was different between the BGO and the Eu:BaFBr. The LET can be determined from the luminescence ratio between Eu:BaFBr and BGO, and the dosimeter response can be corrected. Conclusion: We evaluated the LET dependence of the luminescence efficiency of the BGO and Eu:BaFBr as the quenching effect. We propose and discuss the correction of the quenching effect using the signal intensity ratio of the both materials. Although the correction precision is not sufficient, feasibility of the proposed correction method is proved through basic experiments.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 1995

The ${\gamma}$-ray deposition spectra were calculated by Monte Calro method to obtain the scintillation characteristics of the ${\gamma}$-ray for BGO scintillation detector with the spherical shape of 1.25 cm radius. The code used in calculating the ${\gamma}$-ray deposition spectra was made for personal computer with qbasic language. Also the ${\gamma}$-ray energy spectra of $^{22}Na$, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{207}Bi$ were measured with the detector. The energy dependent resolution below 2000 keV for the detector was determined by estimating the standard deviation of the photopeak fitted with gaussian function, and $X^{2}$ fitting using Nardi's empirical formula. The measured spectra of $^{22}Na$ and $^{137}Cs$ were compared with the broadened spectra which were obtained by broadening the calculated ${\gamma}$-ray deposition spectra with the energy dependent resolution. The absolute efficiency and the intrinsic peak efficiency of the detector were obtained by calculating the ${\gamma}$-ray deposition spectrum with the code.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.251-256
• /
• 2004

CsI(Tl), $CdWO_4(CWO),\;Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}(BGO)\;and\;Gd_2SiO_5:Ce(GSO)$ scintillators were studied to manufacture a phoswich detector. The maximum wavelengths of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators are 550 nm, 475 nm, 490 nm and 440 nm for the radioluminescence, and the absolute light outputs of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators are 54890 phonon/MeV, 17762 phonon/MeV, 8322 phonon/MeV and 8932 phonon/MeV with a neutral filter, and the decay time of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators is $1.3{\mu}s,\;8.17{\mu}s$, 213 ns and 37 ns by a single photon method. The phoswich detector which was manufactured with plastic and CsI(Tl) scintillators could separate the ${\beta}$ particle and ${\gamma}$ ray. The phoswich detector could also measure the pulse height spectra of the ${\beta}$ particle and ${\gamma}$ ray by a PSD method.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.1 no.2
• /
• pp.34-45
• /
• 1991

The fundamental conditions for growing $r-6Bi_2O_3{\cdot}GeO_2$ (BGO) single crystal plates by EFG (Edge -defined Film-fed Growth) method, were investigated and the characterization, quality test were carried out for obtained BGO single crystal plates. The optimum growing conditions determined in this study were as follows: ${\cdot}$ temperature gradient: 22^{\circ}C/cm

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.129-132
• /
• 2023

Purpose: Positron emisson tomography (PET) is a crucial medical imaging scanner for the detection of cancer lesions. In order to maintain the improved image quality, it is crucial to apply detectors of superior performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare PET image quality using Monte Carlo simulation based on the detector materials of BGO, LSO, and LuAP. Materials and Methods: The Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) was used to design the PET detector. Scintillations with BGO, LSO and LuAP were modelled, with a size of 3.95 × 5.3 mm2 (width × height) and 25.0 mm (thickness). The PET detector consisted of 34 blocks per ring and a total of 4 rings. A line source of 1 MBq was modelled and acquired with a radius of 1 mm and length of 20 mm for 20 seconds. The acquired image was reconstructed maximum likelihood expectation maximization with 2 iteration and 10 subsets. The count comparison was carried out. Results and Discussion: The highest true, random, and scatter counts were obtained from the BGO scintillation detector compared to LSO and LuAP. Conclusion: The BGO scintillation detector material indicated excellent performance in terms of detection of gamma rays from emitted PET phantom.