Abstract
The photoluminescence of a Ce-doped LaAlO3 single crystal is not related to the material itself, but to Al-rich micro-inclusions, which is demonstrated by matching their cathodoluminescence spectrum with the photoluminescence spectrum of the crystal.
Highlights
Scintillation detectors for all these applications mostly employ inorganic materials based on single crystals of garnets,[7,8] heavy silicates,[9–12] halides[13–17] or other multicomponent compounds.[1,2,9,18,19]Aluminum perovskites constitute another important group of scintillation materials.[20]
The lanthanum hexaaluminate (LaAl11O18, LHA) powder samples were successfully prepared via the solid state reaction avoiding the formation of any lanthanum–aluminum perovskite (LaAP) phase
The combined investigation of the absorption, luminescence and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies of the Ce-doped LaAP single crystals, further supported by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, has explained the origin of blue luminescence sometimes observed in this material
Summary
Scintillation detectors for all these applications mostly employ inorganic materials based on single crystals of garnets,[7,8] heavy silicates,[9–12] halides[13–17] or other multicomponent compounds.[1,2,9,18,19]. LaAlO3 (LaAP), whose crystal growth is much easier due to its favorable structural features It has almost an ideal value of the so called Goldschmidt tolerance factor,[29,30] which indicates the stability of the perovskite phase. It was very high for the Tb3+ and Eu3+-doped samples, especially in the latter case, which most probably indicated that luminescence centers acting as electron acceptors are more efficient in this material. Due to the above mentioned significant application potential of aluminum perovskites it is highly desirable to reveal the cause of such discrepancies, verify and evaluate the luminescence phenomena in the LaAP:Ce single crystal and confirm or exclude its suitability for the scintillation applications. To the best of our knowledge, the Ce3+ EPR spectrum has never been measured in LaAlO3 crystals or even in the LaAlO3– CeAlO3 solid solutions in the other aluminum perovskites (e.g. YAlO3, LuAlO3) the Ce3+ EPR spectrum is very well visible.[40,41] The correlated experiments allowed us to explain the discrepancies in various studies involving the observation[35] or absence[36,37] of luminescence in LaAP:Ce crystals and to infer their scintillation application potential
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