Hadron-Induced Radiation Damage in LuAG:Ce Scintillating Ceramics

Abstract

Because of their potential low cost, bright light, and fast decay time, LuAG:Ce ceramic scintillators have attracted a broad interest in the high-energy physics community. One crucial issue for their application in future high-energy physics experiments is their radiation hardness against neutrons and protons expected at future hadron colliders. We report optical and scintillation performance of 1-mm LuAG:Ce ceramic samples doped with Mg^2&#x002B; (and Ca^2&#x002B;) and their radiation damage induced by hadrons. While Mg^2&#x002B; co-doping improves their light output, Ca^2&#x002B; co-doping improves their fast to total (F/T) ratio. LuAG:Ce ceramic samples were irradiated at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), Los Alamos, NM, USA, by neutrons up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$6.7\times 10^{15}\,\,\text{n}_{\mathrm {eq}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/cm² and by 24-GeV and 800-MeV protons at CERN PS-IRRAD up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1.2\times 10^{15}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> p/cm² and at LANSCE up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.3\times 10^{14}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> p/cm², respectively. All samples show excellent radiation hardness with more than 90&#x0025; of light after irradiation. The RIAC values induced by neutrons are found to be a factor of 2 smaller than lutetium&#x2013;yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO:Ce) crystals. The RIAC values induced by protons are also found a factor of 2 smaller than LYSO:Ce crystals in LuAG:Ce ceramic samples with good optical quality. Research and development will continue to develop LuAG:Ce scintillating ceramics with improved optical quality for future investigation.