Crystal growth and optical properties of Gd admixed Ce-doepd Lu2Si2O7 single crystals

Ce-doped Lu2Si2O7 scintillator contains radioactive isotope 176Lu which causes an unwanted intrinsic background signal. The development of scintillators with reduced Lu concentration were required in some applications. In this study, we developed the Gd admixed lutetium pyrosilicate, where the average ion radius at the rare earth site was similar to the Tm3+ ion radius, for which the RE2Si2O7 (RE=Tm, Yb, Lu) crystal structure is stable from room temperature to melting point. We have grown (Cex Lu1−x−y Gdy)2Si2O7 (x=0.01, y=0.00, 0.05, 0.10) single crystals. Their crystal systems were monoclinic with a space group C2/m. The absorption spectra revealed the energy transitions in Ce and Gd ions might be occurred. The light output was degraded and decay time was accelerated comparing the Gd 5% admixed sample with the Gd 10% one.