Crystal growth and scintillation properties of multi-component oxide single crystals: Ce:GGAG and Ce:La-GPS

Crystal growth by micro-pulling-down, Czochralski, and floating zone methods and scintillation properties of Ce:Gd3(Ga,Al)5O12 (Ce:GGAG) multi-component oxide garnets, and Ce:Gd2Si2O7 (Ce:GPS) or Ce:(La,Gd)2Si2O7 (Ce:La-GPS) pyro-silicates are reviewed. GGAG crystals demonstrated practically linear dependences of some of the parameters including lattice constant, emission wavelength, and band gap on Ga content. However, emission intensity, light yield and energy resolution showed maxima for intermediate compositions. GGAG crystals had the highest light yield of 56,000 photon/MeV for Ga content of 2.7 atoms per garnet formula unit. Similarly the light yield and energy resolution of La-GPS showed the highest values of 40,000 photon/MeV and 4.4%@662 keV, respectively, for La-GPS containing 10% of La. Moreover, La-GPS demonstrated stable scintillation performance up to 200 °C.