Engineering of a new single-crystal multi-ionic fast and high-light-yield scintillation material (Gd0.5–Y0.5)3Al2Ga3O12:Ce,Mg

Abstract

A single crystal scintillation material (Gd_0.5–Y_0.5)₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ (GYAGG) doped with Ce and codoped with Mg at a small concentration was grown by the Czochralski technique and studied for its scintillation properties for the first time. The Czochralski technique enabled this multi-ionic garnet to be produced from a melt in a single crystal form and allowed the problems of codoping peculiar to this material in a ceramic form to be solved. Due to codoping, the scintillation kinetics of a single crystal is shorter than that of GYAGG ceramics produced before. The scintillation properties of GYAGG were found to be superior to those of the solely Ce-doped or Mg-codoped Gd₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ crystal. The light yield of GYAGG:Ce,Mg was found to be 52 000 ph MeV⁻¹, the coefficient of the light yield temperature dependence in the temperature range 20–100 °C was equal to 0.37%/°C, and the scintillation decay time constant was 50 ns.