Sol-gel-doped glasses for scintillators

This chapter describes the applications of sol-gel methods to scintillation material development. Several approaches to the development of various kinds of scintillation materials are introduced, with main focus on rare-earth-doped silicate glasses and organic-inorganic hybrid materials. Three examples are introduced in detail, in which one is on Pr³⁺-doped silicate glasses and the other two are on the inorganic glass-polymer hybrids. From the viewpoint of practical applications, an enhancement in energy transfer efficiency from the host glass to the luminescence centers is necessary for silicate glasses. On the other hand, organic-inorganic hybrid materials are promising fast scintillation materials for high-energy photons and thermal neutrons.