Pr3+-doped complex oxide single crystal scintillators

We investigate and compare optical absorption, luminescence and scintillation properties of Pr-doped Y3Al5O12, Lu3Al5O12, Y2SiO5 and Lu2SiO5 single crystals. The processes determining the kinetics of the fast Pr3+ 5d-4f radiative transition are described. Among the studied host materials, only Lu3Al5O12 presents neither any 5d(1)-4f luminescence state nonradiative quenching nor Pr3+ ionization at room temperature. We evaluate the figure of merit of all materials for application as scintillators. The most promising system appears to be Lu3Al5O12 : 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 Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO).