Scintillation properties of Eu3+ doped Lu3Al5O12 single crystals

Abstract

Lutetium aluminum garnet single crystals doped with different concentrations of Eu (0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0, 15.0 %) were grown using the floating zone method, and their optical and scintillation properties were investigated. Several sharp peaks due to 4f-4f transitions of Eu³⁺ ions were observed at 580–710 nm in photoluminescence (PL) and scintillation spectra, and the PL and scintillation decay times were estimated to be 2.9–3.8 ms. We measured the pulse height spectra under γ-ray irradiation from ¹³⁷Cs (662 keV) using the setup for scintillators with slow decay times, and the light yields of the samples were estimated. The 5.0 % Eu-doped lutetium aluminum garnet sample showed the highest light yield of 30,000 photons/MeV among the samples.