Comparative study of optical and scintillation properties of Tm3+:YAG, and Tm3+:LuAG single crystals

Abstract The optical and scintillation properties of Tm 3+ -doped yttrium aluminum garnet Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (YAG) and Tm 3+ -doped lutetium aluminum garnet Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 (LuAG) are compared. The Tm 3+ -doped single crystals were grown by the micro-pulling down (μ-PD) technique. Both crystals demonstrated some emission peaks originated from 4f–4f forbidden transition of Tm 3+ under 241 Am alpha-ray excitation. The scintillation decay time of Tm 3+ -doped YAG was similar to that of LuAG. When irradiated by the gamma-rays from a 137 Cs source, the relative scintillation light yields of Tm:YAG was 90% greater than that of Tm:LuAG.