Fabrication and characterizations of (Lu,Gd)2O3:Eu scintillation ceramics

In this paper, (Lu,Gd)2O3:Eu ceramics were consolidated by the solid-state reaction method combined with vacuum sintering at 1820 °C for 10 h. It is found that the Gd2O3 incorporates well into the Lu2O3 lattices and forms a solid solution. Particularly, strong red emission of 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+ at 611 nm, matched well to the spectral sensitivity of typical CCD arrays, was observed in the photoluminescence and radioluminescence spectra. What's more, radioluminescence intensity of the 4f→4f transitions of Eu3+ reaches up to 10 times of bismuth germanium oxide (BGO) single crystal reference scintillator. Intensities of the radioluminescence and the integrated thermoluminescence versus temperatures, as well as the influence of annealing treatment on the thermoluminescence intensity, were also studied. We think that (Lu,Gd)2O3:Eu ceramic scintillators may have great potential in medical X-ray computed tomography (CT) due to their excellent properties.