Fabrication of cerium-doped nonstoichiometric (Ce, Lu, Gd)3+δ(Ga, Al)5-δO12 transparent ceramics

Cerium-doped nonstoichiometric (Ce, Lu, Gd)(3+delta)(Ga, Al)(5-delta)O-12 (LuGGAG) transparent garnet ceramic samples were fabricated via a solid state reaction method in this study. The ceramics were prepared via oxygen sintering followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The phase and microstructure of the samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The excitation, emission and transmission spectra were also measured. The total optical transmittance of the annealed LuGGAG ceramics with thickness of 3 mm reached 47% at the emission wavelength of 555 nm. The decay time was about 60 ns. Compact microstructure of polycrystalline grains with scale around 5 mu m were gained according to scanning electron microscopy characterization. The successful preparation of the bulk ceramic material and implementation of the combined oxygen sintering-hot isostatic pressing treatment process provided an important method for the exploration of nonstoichiometric scintillator material.