Pr 3+ -doped complex oxide single crystal scintillators

We investigate and compare optical absorption, luminescence and scintillation properties of Pr-doped Y 3 Al 5 O 12 , Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 , Y 2 SiO 5 and Lu 2 SiO 5 single crystals. The processes determining the kinetics of the fast Pr 3+ 5d–4f radiative transition are described. Among the studied host materials, only Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 presents neither any 5d 1 –4f luminescence state nonradiative quenching nor Pr 3+ ionization at room temperature. We evaluate the figure of merit of all materials for application as scintillators. The most promising system appears to be Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 : Pr, since it combines an elevated density of 6.67 g cm −3 , a fast scintillation response dominated by a 21 ns decay time and a spectrally corrected light yield about 160% with respect to that of Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 (BGO).