Radiation Measurements 42 (2007) 586 – 589 www.elsevier.com/locate/radmeas Dosimetric properties of RbCdF 3 : Mn 2+ C. Dotzler a , b, ∗ , G.V.M. Williams a , A. Edgar b , G.A. Appleby b a MacDiarmid Institute, Industrial Research, P.O. Box 31310, Lower Hutt, New Zealand b MacDiarmid Institute, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand Received 17 December 2006; accepted 31 January 2007 Abstract Single crystals of the cubic fluoroperovskite RbCdF 3 doped with different concentrations of Mn 2+ were investigated as potential dosimetric materials for which the dose information can be read via optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) or thermoluminescence (TL). X-ray, 241 Am and 137 Cs -ray irradiation as well as UV excitation below 280 nm induced broad absorption bands centered around 300 nm, that are most likely attributable to F-centers. These bands grow linearly over at least 6 orders of magnitude with radiation dose. They can be optically bleached with light of the same wavelength yielding OSL emission from a spin and parity forbidden Mn 2+ excited state to ground state transition. TL measurements up to 420 ◦ C show at least 4 glow peaks with the same Mn 2+ emission as the OSL, which can be excited by X-ray,  and UV irradiation. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: RbCdF 3 ; Fluoroperovskite; OSL; Dosimetry 1. Introduction Ternary fluorides crystallizing in the perovskite (CaTiO 3 ) structure, referred to as fluoroperovskites, have been shown to be promising candidates for radiation detector materi- als. For instance, KMgF 3 doped with various impurity ions exhibits thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) sensitivities exceeding those of the estab- lished commercial dosimetry materials LiF:Mg, Ti (Kitis et al., 1999) and Al 2 O 3 :C (Le Masson et al., 2002). The inverse perovskite LiBaF 3 is a sensitive neutron and  scintillation material (Knitel et al., 1996). In contrast to binary fluorides, the fluoroperovskites generally are less hygroscopic and have a wider band gap, which makes them more versatile for practical applications. Irradiation induced modifications of the optical properties of RbCdF 3 doped with Mn 2+ and other transition metals have been first reported by Losada et al. (1988). In Mn 2+ doped samples, UV and X-ray irradiation gives rise to a broad absorption band centered at 300 nm that can be bleached ∗ Corresponding author. MacDiarmid Institute, Industrial Research, P.O. Box 31310, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Tel.: +64 4 931 3325; fax: +64 4 931 3117. E-mail address: c.dotzler@irl.cri.nz (C. Dotzler). 1350-4487/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2007.01.078 optically yielding an emission at 555 nm. TL emission at the same wavelength has been observed by de Lucas et al. (1994) in this material. The emission can be attributed to a spin and parity forbidden 3d dipole transition. The observed wavelength is typical for the 12-fold coordination of Mn 2+ occupying a substitutional Cd site (O h symmetry). Similar effects have also been observed in Mn 2+ doped CaF 2 (commercial dosime- ter material TLD-400), where Mn 2+ occupies a six-fold co- ordinated site of the same symmetry ( Allen and McKeever, 1990). In this report we focus on the dosimetric properties of RbCdF 3 doped with various concentrations of Mn 2+ . The ra- diation induced OSL and TL and its dependence on radiation dose have been investigated. 2. Experimental Single crystals of Mn-doped RbCdF 3 were kindly provided by J.M. Spaeth and S. Schweizer (University of Paderborn). They were grown using the Bridgman method with a vitre- ous carbon crucible, argon atmosphere and a stoichiometric mixture of CdF 2 and RbF powder to which 100, 2000 and 10,000 ppm MnF 2 was added. The actual Mn 2+ impurity con- centrations are 0.013, 0.18 and 0.81% (Dotzler et al., 2006).