Cerium-doped single crystal and transparent ceramic lutetium aluminum garnet scintillators

For rapid, unambiguous isotope identification, scintillator detectors providing high-resolution gamma ray spectra are required. We have fabricated Lutetium Aluminum Garnet (LuAG) using transparent ceramic processing, and report a 2-mm thick ceramic exhibiting 75% transmission and light yield comparable to single-crystal LuAG:Ce. The LuAG:Ce luminescence peaks at 550 nm, providing an excellent match for Silicon Photodiode readout. LuAG is dense (6.67 g/cm3) and impervious to water, exhibits good proportionality and a fast decay (∼40 ns), and we measure light yields in excess of 20,000 photons/MeV.