Evaluations of pure and ytterbium doped transparent ceramic complex perovskite scintillators

Abstract Optical and scintillation properties of complex perovskite transparent ceramic scintillators of pure and Yb 3+ doped Ba(ZrMgTa)O 3 and (LaSr)(AlTa)O 3 ceramics are reported. The materials were produced by Murata Manufacturing. Their optical properties including transmittance and photoluminescence spectra were evaluated. The ceramics demonstrated high transparency (50–70%) in visible wavelength region. Additionally, strong emission peaks were observed at 470 nm in Ba(ZrMgTa)O 3 under 284 nm excitation and at 500 nm in (LaSr)(AlTa)O 3 under 324 nm excitation. The photoluminescence decay times of Ba(ZrMgTa)O 3 and (LaSr)(AlTa)O 3 samples were 14 and 16 μs, respectively. Judging from these optical properties, Yb 3+ emission was not observed in these materials. In radio luminescence spectra, all specimens exhibited the same emission peaks with relatively higher emission intensity. 241 Am 5.5 MeV α-ray induced pulse height spectra of the samples were also measured, and (LaSr)(AlTa)O 3 demonstrated ∼500 ph/5.5 MeV α with 10 μs shaping time constant.