Comparison of LuAP and LuYAP crystal properties from statistically significant batches produced with two different growth methods

Measurements of the light yield, decay time and transmission were carried out on LuAP:Ce and mixed LuYAP:Ce crystals, which are new scintillation materials considered for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and are used in the ClearPET (TM) [Auffray et al., Nucl. Sci. Methods A 527 (2004) 171 [15]], the small animal PET scanner developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration at CERN [CR & D for the study of new fast and radiation hard scintillators for calorimetry at LHC, Crystal Clear Collaboration, project RD 18, CERN/DRDC/P27/91-15 [16]]. The purpose was to compare the properties of these two crystal types and to evaluate LuAP and LuYAP crystals produced by one of the authors (A. Petrosyan) from the Institute for Physical Research (IPR), Armenia in comparison to the crystals commercially available from Photonics Materials Ltd. (PML), Glasgow, UK as well as from the Bogoroditsk Techno Chemical Plant (BTCP) in Russia. The influence of the Ce-concentration on the crystal properties was studied for crystals from IPR. The non-proportionality of the light output and the energy resolution at different energies for the best four crystals was compared to a LYSO crystal. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.