Comparative study of optical and scintillation properties of Tm3+:YAG, and Tm3+:LuAG single crystals

The optical and scintillation properties of Tm3+-doped yttrium aluminum garnet Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and Tm3+-doped lutetium aluminum garnet Lu3Al5O12 (LuAG) are compared. The Tm3+-doped single crystals were grown by the micro-pulling down (mu-PD) technique. Both crystals demonstrated some emission peaks originated from 4f-4f forbidden transition of Tm3+ under Am-241 alpha-ray excitation. The scintillation decay time of Tm3+-doped YAG was similar to that of LuAG. When irradiated by the gamma-rays from a Cs-137 source, the relative scintillation light yields of Tm:YAG was 90% greater than that of Tm:LuAG. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.