Growth of silver doped Li2B4O7single crystals for dosimetric application

High quality lithium tetraborate; Li 2 B 4 O 7 (LTB) single crystals with varying concentrations of Ag have been grown using the Czochralski technique. Optimized growth parameters enabled us to grow crystals that were transparent, colorless, crack-free, and core-free. The grown LTB:Ag crystals were characterized using UV-VIS-NIR transmission, photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) measurements. The transmission of about 85 % in the range from 200 nm to 1100 nm revealed a good optical quality of the grown crystals. The TL glow peak of LTB:Ag single crystals at 160°C with an emission at 270 nm is found useful for the dosimetric applications. The dose response is found to be linear in the range from 100 mGy to 50 Gy.