Optical Transmittance and Irradiation Resistance of Rare-Earth (Ce3☎, Tb3☎, Pr3☎) Doped Heavy Germanate Glasses

In this work we investigated the possibility of using scintillating rare earth Ce3☎, Tb3☎, and Pr3☎ ions to optically activate germanate glass matrices. Glasses were characterised in terms of radiation resistance, UV-VIS transmittance and luminescence spectra. Their radiation induced response was found to be dependent on glass composition and these trivalent rare earth ions turned out to be efficient in suppressing formation of colour centres absorbing light in the visible range.