Wide Concentration Range of Tb3+ Doping Influence on Scintillation Properties of (Ce, Tb, Gd)3Ga2Al3O12 Crystals Grown by the Optical Floating Zone Method

Tong Wu; Ling Wang; Yun Shi; Xintang Huang; Qian Zhang; Yifei Xiong; Hui Wang; Jinghong Fang; Jinqi Ni; Huan He; Chaoyue Wang; Zhenzhen Zhou; Qian Liu; Qin Li; Jianding Yu; Oleg Shichalin; Evgeniy Papynov

doi:10.3390/ma15062044

Wide Concentration Range of Tb³⁺ Doping Influence on Scintillation Properties of (Ce, Tb, Gd)₃Ga₂Al₃O₁₂ Crystals Grown by the Optical Floating Zone Method

Materials (Basel). 2022 Mar 10;15(6):2044. doi: 10.3390/ma15062044.

Authors

Tong Wu^{1

2}, Ling Wang^{1

2}, Yun Shi^{1

3}, Xintang Huang², Qian Zhang^{1

4}, Yifei Xiong^{1

5}, Hui Wang¹, Jinghong Fang¹, Jinqi Ni¹, Huan He¹, Chaoyue Wang¹, Zhenzhen Zhou¹, Qian Liu¹, Qin Li¹, Jianding Yu^{1

3}, Oleg Shichalin⁶, Evgeniy Papynov⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
² College of Physical Science and Technology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China.
³ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
⁵ College of Material Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.
⁶ Laboratory of Nuclear Technology, Institute of High Technologies and Advanced Materials, Far Eastern Federal University, 690091 Vladivostok, Russia.

Abstract

To obtain a deeper understand of the energy transfer mechanism between Ce³⁺ and Tb³⁺ ions in the aluminum garnet hosts, (Ce, Tb, Gd)₃Ga₂Al₃O₁₂ (GGAG:Ce, Tb) single crystals grown by the optical floating zone (OFZ) method were investigated systematically in a wide range of Tb³⁺ doping concentration (1-66 at.%). Among those, crystal with 7 at.% Tb reached a single garnet phase while the crystals with other Tb³⁺ concentrations are mixed phases of garnet and perovskite. Obvious Ce and Ga loss can be observed by an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS) technology. The absorption bands belonging to both Ce³⁺ and Tb³⁺ ions can be observed in all crystals. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show the presence of an efficient energy transfer from the Tb³⁺ to Ce³⁺ and the gradually quenching effect with increasing of Tb³⁺ concentration. GGAG: 1% Ce³⁺, 7% Tb³⁺ crystal was found to possess the highest PL intensity under excitation of 450 nm. The maximum light yield (LY) reaches 18,941 pho/MeV. The improved luminescent and scintillation characteristics indicate that the cation engineering of Tb³⁺ can optimize the photoconversion performance of GGAG:Ce.

Keywords: Ce3+ and Tb3+; GGAG:Ce, Tb; optical floating zone method; scintillator.

Abstract

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