Effects of Sc3+ admixture on luminescence and scintillation properties of Ce3+-doped Lu2Y(Al5-xScx)O12 (x = 1, 1.5, 2) garnet single-crystalline films

Abstract

Effects of Sc3+ admixture on luminescence and scintillation properties were studied in Ce3+ - doped Lu2Y(Al5-xScx)O12 (x = 1, 1.5, 2) garnet single-crystalline films grown by the isothermal liquid phase epitaxy technique. The Ce3+ photoluminescence (PL) was slightly blue shifted with increasing Sc content due to a decrease in crystal field splitting of the Ce3+ 5d levels. In addition, the thermal activation energy of PL quenching, estimated from the temperature dependence of PL decay times, decreased with increasing Sc content. Lu2YAl4ScO12:Ce exhibited the highest light yield (LY) value of 420 photons/MeV at 5.5 MeV α particles along with a fast scintillation decay time constant (τe) of 17.4 ns. At room temperature, the decrease of LY value with increasing Sc content could be attributed to the thermal ionization process.