Fast (Ce,Gd)3Ga2Al3O12 Scintillators Grown by the Optical Floating Zone Method

Authors：Wu, Tong; Wang, Ling; Shi, Yun^*; Xu, Tianzhao; Wang, Hui; Fang, Jinghong; Ni, Jinqi; He, Huan; Wang, Chaoyue; Wan, Bo; Ding, Dongzhou; Zhou, Zhenzhen; Liu, Qian; Li, Qin; Yu, Jianding; Huang, Xintang^*; Shichalin, Oleg; Papynov, E. K.

Source：Crystal Growth and Design, 2022, 22(1): 180-190.

DOI：10.1021/acs.cgd.1c00779

• SINGLE-CRYSTAL
• LUMINESCENCE PROPERTIES
• FABRICATION

A series of (CexGd1-x)(3)Ga2Al3O12 (x = 0-0.8%) (Ce/GGAG) crystals were grown by the optical floating zone (OFZ) method. Ce/GGAG single crystals with good crystallinity were successfully obtained by introducing oxygen atmosphere (100%) and auxiliary pressure (0.3 MPa) to suppress Ga2O3 volatilization in a container-free environment. The photoluminescence (PL) and scintillation properties of those Ce/GGAG crystals with different Ce3+ doping concentrations were investigated. In the 0.2-0.8 at. % Ce concentration range, the integral PL intensities were found to vary according to the approximate Gaussian distribution with Ce concentration, and the 0.6 at. % Ce/GGAG crystal has the highest integral PL intensity. Gd3+ emission was observed under X-ray excitation, which was rarely reported before. The maximum light yield reaches to 38,848 pho/MeV in the 0.6 at. % Ce/GGAG crystal. More importantly, fast decay and high ratio of the fast component (71 ns 66%) were successfully obtained in Ce/GGAG crystals with a Ga/Al = 2/3 ratio, which might be attributed to the suppression of composition deviation by introducing O-2 (100%) atmosphere during crystal growth. It indicates that the optical floating zone method is effective in the composition engineering study of Ce/GGAG crystals to optimize the scintillation performance.

• Institution
  y; 中国科学院研究生院