Growth and luminescent properties of single crystalline films of Ce3+ doped Pr1−xLuxAlO3 and Gd1−xLuxAlO3 perovskites

The paper is dedicated to development of UV emitting scintillating screens for microimaging applications based on the single crystalline films (SCFs) of Ce doped Gd1−xLuxAlO3 and Pr1−xLuxAlO3 (x=0-1) multicomponent perovskites grown onto YAlO3 (YAP) substrates using the liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method with the objective to improve the X-ray stopping power. Recently Riva et al. [1] have reported that the full set of GdxLu1−xAlO3 SCFs with x values in x=0−1.0 range can be crystallized on YAP substrates using this technique. We report here that PrxLu1−xAlO3 SCFs with x values in x=0-0.5 range can be grown also by the LPE method from PbO-B2O3 flux onto the same YAP substrates. The structural quality of the films was studied using X-ray diffraction. The optical properties of Ce3+ doped of Gd1−xLuxAlO3 and Pr1−xLuxAlO3 (x=0−1) multicomponent perovskite films, studied by traditional spectroscopic methods, such as absorption, cathodoluminescence, photoluminescence and light yield measurements under α-particles excitation, are also reported in this work. We have shown that Pb2+ flux related impurity has significantly larger influence on the light yield of Pr0.5Lu0.5AlO3:Ce, GdAlO3:Ce and Gd0.5Lu0.5AlO3:Ce SCFs in comparison with the YAP:Ce and LuAlO3:Ce counterparts grown onto YAP substrates.