Fabrication, microstructure and luminescence properties of Cr3+ doped Lu3A15O12 red scintillator ceramics

Cr3+ doped Lu3A15O12 transparent ceramics were developed as a new red scintillator ceramics. These ceramics were fabricated by a solid state reaction method under vacuum sintering at temperature range of 1550 °C-1890 °C for 10 h. The doping effect of different Cr3+ concentration (0, 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 at. %) and air annealing effect were investigated as well. The transparent ceramics (70% @1 mm in visible light range) with dense microstructure were obtained when sintered at 1890 °C for 10 h, the average grain size of 0.3 at.% Cr:LuAG was calculated to be 7 μm. Photo-luminescence spectra revealed that there are two typical excitation bands at around 450 nm and 600 nm which were ascribed to the d-d transitions of Cr3+. 0.3 at. % Cr:LuAG exhibited the optimum photoluminescence intensity and fast decay. Radio-luminescence under X-ray excitation indicated a characteristic Cr3+ emission peaking at 687 nm and 706 nm respectively. The Lu3+Al antisite defects related emission at around 300 nm was observed to decrease with the doping of Cr3+. The steady luminescence efficiency (XEL spectrum integral) is around 20 times of the commercial BGO crystals, more important, the broad and continuous red emission between 600 nm and 800 nm demonstrated Cr:LuAG ceramics a prospective application as new red scintillators.