Significant enhancement of scintillation performance by inducing oxygen vacancies in alkali metal ion (A+ = Li+, Na+, K+)-incorporated (Lu, Sc)BO3:Ce

Abstract

The incorporation of Sc³⁺ can stabilize calcite-phase LuBO₃:Ce³⁺ to grow large-sized single crystals but leads to the significant degradation of scintillation performance. In the present work, alkali metal ion (A⁺ = Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺)-incorporated (Lu, A, Sc)BO₃:Ce was rapidly synthesized in batches via a high-throughput sol–gel method. The aliovalent substitution of Lu³⁺ with A⁺ is balanced by the generation of oxygen vacancies by forming complexes. Thanks to the increased oxygen vacancies, the luminescence and XEL intensity of (Lu, Li, Sc)BO₃:Ce are significantly enhanced by 2.2 times and 1.9 times, respectively. Further, the incorporation of A⁺ is attributed to the improved transition efficiency of charge carriers. The prepared scintillation screen fabricated with LASBO:Ce and PMMA shows that the spatial resolution can reach 8.6 lp mm⁻¹, indicating its potential application in efficient and low-cost non-destructive X-ray detection. This work is of great significance in improving the luminescence and scintillation performance of (Lu, Sc)BO₃:Ce single crystals and thin films and their application in the scintillation field.