High-perfomance Ce-doped multicomponent garnet single crystalline film scintillators

Abstract

We report for the first time the optimized content and excellent scintillation properties of single crystalline film (SCF) scintillators of multicomponent Gd3–xLux Al5–yGay O12:Ce garnet compounds grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method. The Gd1.5Lu1.5Al2.75Ga2.25O12:Ce and Gd3Al2.75–2Ga2.25–3O12:Ce SCF show the light yield (LY) comparable with that of high-quality bulk crystal analogues of these garnets but faster scintillation decay and very low thermoluminescence in the above room temperature range. To our knowledge, these SCF possess the highest LY values ever obtained in LPE grown garnet SCF scintillators exceeding by at least 1.5–1.6 times the values previously reported for SCF scintillators. Left figure: image of Gd1.5Lu1.5Al2.75Ga2.25O12:Ce (PbO) (inset, left) and Gd3Al2.35Ga2.65O12:Ce (BaO) (inset, right) SCF scintillators, grown by LPE method onto Gd3Al2.5Ga2.5O12 (GAGG) substrate; in the middle, green–yellow light emitting by Gd1.5Lu1.5Al2.75Ga2.25O12:Ce (BaO) SCF under 350 nm laser illumination. Right figure: XRD pattern of (1200) planes of the Gd1.5Lu1.5Al2.75Ga2.25O12:Ce (PbO) (black) and Gd3Al2.75Ga2.25O12:Ce (BaO) (red) SCFs, grown onto GAGG substrates. The film/substrate lattice misfit is –0.73% and –0.3%, respectively. (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)