The growth and properties of Y admixed LuAG:Ce scintillating single crystal fiber fabricated by laser heated pedestal growth method

Aluminum garnet crystal has great potential in detecting the high-energy photons and particles for its good scintillation properties and preparing the high time and spatial resolution fiber-array detector for its' easy preparation as single crystal fiber. 0.2 at% Ce: Lu1-xYxAG (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) scintillating single crystal fibers were successfully prepared by laser heated pedestal growth method. The 5d1 energy level of Ce3+ lumi-nescence center is shifting to lower energy and 5d2 energy level of Ce3+ luminescence center is shifting to higher energy with the Y admixture increasing. The photoluminescence decay was fitted by single-exponential decay curve and the scintillation decay were fitted by double-exponential decay curve instead for the different lumi-nescence mechanism. The highest scintillation light yield of 32,457 Ph/MeV and 10,617 Ph/MeV was obtained from the horizontal-direction and longitudinal-direction sides of 0.2 at% Ce: Lu0.25Y0.75AG scintillating single crystal fiber respectively, demonstrating its perspective for application in High Energy Physics.

Automated summary

Aluminum garnet crystal shows great potential in detecting high-energy photons and particles due to its good scintillation properties and its ease of preparation as a single crystal fiber array detector. Scintillating single crystal fibers of 0.2 at% Ce: Lu1-xYxAG (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) were successfully prepared using the laser heated pedestal growth method. The addition of Y admixture resulted in a shift of the 5d1 energy level of the Ce3+ luminescence center to lower energy and the 5d2 energy level to higher energy. Photoluminescence decay and scintillation decay curves were fitted with single-exponential and double-exponential decay curves, respectively, indicating different luminescence mechanisms. The highest scintillation light yields of 32,457 Ph/MeV and 10,617 Ph/MeV were obtained from the horizontal-direction and longitudinal-direction sides, respectively, of the 0.2 at% Ce: Lu0.25Y0.75AG scintillating single crystal fiber, demonstrating its potential for application in High Energy Physics.