Analysis of excitation density effects on the scintillation properties of Ce:Gd2SiO5 (GSO) crystals

We analyzed the effects of the excitation density or linear energy transfer (LET) on the scintillation temporal profiles of Gd2SiO5(GSO):Ce by using pulsed ion beams of 20 MeV H+, 50 MeV He2+, and 220 MeV C5+. The rise was faster at higher LET, while the decay was similar at largely different LETs. The LET effects on the rise are explained in terms of the competition between the quenching owing to the interaction between the 6PJ excited states at neighboring Gd3+ ions and the energy transfer to Ce3+ ions.