Abstract: Radioluminescent nuclear batteries have unique advantages such as compactness, miniaturization, and a wide range of transducer materials to choose from, and are regarded as a typical representative of radiation-particle-conversion nuclear batteries. Fluorescent material is the key link that affects the performance of the battery, and its irradiation stability is a prerequisite to ensure that the battery can serve efficiently for a long period of time. Based on this, ZnS:Cu, a typical material in radioluminescent nuclear batteries, was selected for the study. The changes in luminescence properties of ZnS:Cu radioluminescent materials after irradiation with different types and intensities of ray particles were emphasized. The changes of parameters such as irradiated fluorescence spectra, luminescence intensity, and the influence laws of fluorescent materials before and after irradiation on the electrical output performance of the corresponding nuclear batteries were compared. The irradiation resistance of the ZnS:Cu fluorescent layers was tested and investigated to be relatively good, and the peak light intensity of its emission spectrum was only attenuated by 15.23% and 13.94% compared with that of the unirradiated one after being irradiated by protons at 200 keV and 1.25×10¹⁴ ions/cm² and electrons at 100 keV and 4.32×10¹⁶ e/cm², respectively. It was also found that the irradiation damage effect causes radioluminescent intensity decay, which is intrinsic to the degradation of the electrical performance of the battery. And a certain intensity of gamma irradiation can promote the irradiation luminescence performance of ZnS:Cu fluorescent layer. Among them, the ZnS:Cu fluorescent layer based on acrylic thin film was subjected to gamma irradiation with an irradiation dose of 871.0 kGy, and the maximum output power of the corresponding nuclear battery was enhanced by 24.59%. This work has positively contributed to the research on irradiation stability assessment and performance optimization of fluorescent materials and related devices.

Key words: nuclear battery, energy conversion, radioluminescence, fluorescent material, irradiation damage