Growth and Characterization of Ce-Doped Luag Single Crystal Fibers from Transparent Ceramics by Laser-Heated Pedestal Method

Yun Dai,Anhua Wu,Liangbi Su,Xibin Wang,Zhonghan Zhang,Zhuowei Lu,Huamin Kou

doi:10.3390/cryst11091149

Abstract

Scintillation single crystal fibers (SCFs) have great potential applications in the new generation of high-energy ray and particle detectors due to their morphological advantages. In this work; Ce:LuAG SCFs with a diameter of 1 mm were grown along the direction of [111] by laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method using a transparent ceramic as the source rod; and a doping concentration was 0.1 at%, 0.3 at%, 1 at%, respectively. The effects of growth rate and annealing in air on the scintillation and optical properties of SCF are discussed in detail. The results of analyzing the absorption spectra; radioluminescence (RL) spectra; pulse-height spectra and fluorescence lifetime of SCFs show that the SCF maintains excellent scintillation performance while having a fiber structure. Therefore; Ce:LuAG SCF is a potential candidate material for detector.

Highlights

At present, inorganic scintillation materials have been widely studied because of their irreplaceable role in the fields of high energy physics, medical imaging and nuclear energy technology, etc. [1,2,3,4]
The results show that the Ce:LuAG scintillation crystal still has good scintillation performance after fiberation
The radioluminescence (RL) measurements were performed on an X-ray Excited Luminescence (XEL) Spectrometer built by Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science

Summary

Introduction

Inorganic scintillation materials have been widely studied because of their irreplaceable role in the fields of high energy physics, medical imaging and nuclear energy technology, etc. [1,2,3,4]. Caltech conducted neutron and proton irradiation experiments on Ce:LuAG, and found that Ce:LuAG has the best antiradiation performance among the materials known at present, and the absorption coefficient of neutron and proton irradiation is only half of that of LYSO [19] These outstanding advantages make LuAG crystals an ideal candidate for future high energy physics, especially for high irradiation backgrounds. The μ-PD method can grow fibrous LuAG crystals, reducing the production cost of the material, the crucible is needed during the growth process, and the high melting point of LuAG crystals will inevitably bring pollution into the growth process. Another main method for growing inorganic SCFs is the LHPG method. The results show that the Ce:LuAG scintillation crystal still has good scintillation performance after fiberation

Growth of Single Crystal Fibers

Characterization

Spectral Properties

Scintillation Properties of Ce:LuAG SCF

Conclusions