Alkali earth co-doping effects on luminescence and scintillation properties of Ce doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 scintillator

• The Mg and Ca co-doped Ce:GAGG single crystals were prepared by μ-PD method.
• The scintillation decay curves were accelerated by Mg co-doping.
• Dominant decay time of Ce:GAGG decreased down to 39 ns by Mg co-doping.
• Mg co-doped Ce:GAGG can be promising scintillator for positron emission tomography.

The Mg and Ca co-doped Ce:Gd3Al2Ga3O12 single crystals were prepared by micro pulling down method with a wide concentration range 0–1000 ppm of the codopants. Absorption and luminescence spectra were measured together with several other scintillation characteristics, namely the scintillation decay and light yield to reveal the effect of Mg and Ca co-doping. The scintillation decays were accelerated by both Mg and Ca codopants. Comparing to Ca co-doping, the Mg co-doped samples showed much faster decay and comparatively smaller light output decrease with increasing Mg dopant concentration.