Effects of dopant distribution improvement on optical and scintillation properties for Ce-doped garnet-type single crystals

Ce-doped garnet-type single crystals with improved dopant distribution were grown by the micro-pulling-down method using a modified Iridium crucible and effects of dopant distribution improvement on the optical and scintillation properties were investigated. Ce-doped Y3Al5O12 (Ce:YAG) and Gd-3(Ga,Al)(5)O-12 (Ce:GGAG) single crystals with improved dopant distribution could be grown by a Iridium crucible with five capillaries (5C). The Ce:YAG and Ce:GGAG single crystals (5C) showed higher transmittance than the single crystals grown by an original Iridium crucible with one capillary (1C). In addition, a clear photo-peak could be observed in the pulse-height spectrum of the Ce:YAG single crystal (5C) under gamma-ray irradiation while there was no peak in the spectrum of the Ce:YAG single crystal (1C).