Effects of two strategies on afterglow behavior of Lu2O3:Eu single crystal scintillator: Co-doping with Pr3+ and solid solution with Sc2O3

Abstract

In this paper, effect of two strategies on afterglow behavior of Lu2O3:Eu single crystal scintillator, Pr3+ co-doping and solid solution with Sc2O3, were studied systematically. Two groups of Lu2O3:5 at%Eu,x at%Pr (x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5) and (Lu1–yScy)2O3:5 at%Eu (y = 0, 20 at%, 50 at% and 70 at%) single crystals were grown by floating zone (FZ) method in air atmosphere. The structures of as-grown crystals were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The scintillation, photoluminescence properties and carrier trap states were investigated through afterglow, X-ray excitation luminescence (XEL), transmittance, photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and photoluminescence (PL), PL decay and thermal stimulated luminescence (TSL) curves. It is found that with the increase of Pr3+ concentration, the afterglow level of the system decreases at the expense of scintillation luminescence efficiency. Meanwhile, although Sc2O3:Eu presents much lower afterglow intensity than Lu2O3:Eu, the addition of Sc2O3 will just increase the afterglow level of the (Lu1–yScy)2O3:5 at%Eu single crystal system. Possible mechanisms for above phenomena are discussed based on experimental results.