Comparative study of intrinsic luminescence in undoped transparent ceramic and single crystal garnet scintillators

• We compare scintillation properties of undoped garnet ceramics to single crystals.
• Both ceramics and crystals showed intrinsic emission band under excited at X-ray.
• Scintillation light yield of ceramics was poor in comparison to that of crystal.
• Concentration of lattice defects related to scintillation of ceramics was low.

Scintillation properties associated with intrinsic lattice defects of undoped Y3A5O12 (YAG) and Lu3A5O12 (LuAG) transparent ceramics and single crystals are compared. The ceramics excited with X-ray demonstrated relatively low emission intensity when compared with that of the single crystals. Decay times of the ceramics and the single crystals were similar. These parameters were approximately 430 ns (YAG ceramic), 460 ns (YAG single crystal), 30 ns and 1090 ns (LuAG ceramic), and 25 ns and 970 ns (LuAG single crystal). According to the pulse height spectra recorded under 137Cs gamma-ray irradiation, the scintillation light yield of the both ceramics were about 2950 ± 290 ph/MeV. However, the single crystals had greater kight yield of about about 14,300 ± 1430 ph/MeV for YAG and 8350 ± 830 ph/MeV for LuAG.