Fabrication of highly efficient ZnO nanoscintillators

•ZnO:Ga(La) nanoparticles were prepared by photo-induced synthesis.•Two-step annealing leads to the improvement of the luminescence properties.•Nanoparticles then featured sub-nanosecond photoluminescence decay times.•Only excitonic emission was observed within 8–300 K temperature interval.•Simultaneous Ga3+, La3+ codoping further increases luminescence intensity.

Photo-induced synthesis of high-efficiency ultrafast nanoparticle scintillators of ZnO was demonstrated. Controlled doping with Ga(III) and La(III) ions together with the optimized method of ZnO synthesis and subsequent two-step annealing in air and under reducing atmosphere allow to achieve very high intensity of UV exciton luminescence, up to 750% of BGO intensity magnitude. Fabricated nanoparticles feature extremely short sub-nanosecond photoluminescence decay times. Temperature dependence of the photoluminescence spectrum within 8–340 K range was investigated and shows the absence of visible defect-related emission within all temperature intervals.