Mn²⁺-Induced Robust Radiation Hardness in Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ for Next-Generation High-Energy Physical Colliders

Future high-performance particle colliders, e.g., the proposed circular electron positron collider (CEPC) or future circular collider (FCC), demand unprecedented levels of accuracy in energy measurement for calorimeters. Although the proposed high-granularity crystal electromagnetic calorimeter has made great progress in recent years, the designing and matching of Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) scintillators with lower light output and higher radiation resistance, as well as not introducing slow components, lag far behind. Here, a Mn-doped BGO powder exhibits robust radiation resistance with a faster decay time, accelerating by 15%. Doping with Mn3% reduces the intensities of photoluminescence (PL) and radioluminescence (RL) to 55% and 22%, respectively, of those observed in pure BGO powder. Furthermore, Mn-doped BGO exhibits enhanced radiation resistance and can maintain 72% of the initial RL intensity within 2 h of radiation with a high-power UV lamp, while that of pure BGO is severely degraded to 45%. Theoretical calculation mechanism studies show that Mn doping not only maintains the intrinsic luminescence of BGO but also introduces a new intermediate energy level in the energy band to inhibit the formation of color centers. This work provides a new avenue to search for or discover scintillators from existing cost-effective scintillators for future high-energy physics experiments.