Luminescence properties of the Mg co–doped Ce:SrHfO3 ceramics prepared by the Spark Plasma Sintering Method

• Luminescence Properties of Al/Ce/Mg:SrHfO3 ceramics scintillator was investigated.
• These ceramics were prepared by the Spark Plasma Sintering Method.
• Light output of the Al/Ce/Mg:SrHfO3 ceramics was approximately 5,000 ph/MeV.

1300 or 1400 °C pre–sintered Al/Ce/Mg:SrHfO3 and Al/Ce:SrHfO3 ceramics were prepared by the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) in order to search for a new scintillation material with a high–effective atomic number(Zeff) and good light output. The SrHfO3 has a high Zeff of 60, and high gamma–ray detection efficiency is expected. Meanwhile it has a high melting point of over 2500 °C, and single crystal is hard to be grown. On the other hand, high melting materials can be prepared as ceramics, and the SPS method is a simple process to fabricate the ceramics within a few hours. Thus, we prepared the samples using the SPS method, and their optical and scintillation properties were investigated. We found that Al/Ce/Mg:SrHfO3 and Al/Ce:SrHfO3 ceramics had an emission wavelength at around 400 nm originating from 5d–4f transition of Ce3+. Moreover, Al/Ce/Mg:SrHfO3 pre-sintered at a temperature of 1400 °C had a light output of approximately 5,000 ph/MeV. In this paper, the light output of Mg-co-doped samples was improved compared with the Mg-free ones. The light output also depends on the pre-sintering temperature.