Scintillation properties of high-pressure-synthesized ZnO ceramics

We synthesized ZnO ceramics scintillators without or with dopants using a high-pressure synthesis method. The dense ceramics were successfully obtained, and the densified structure was confirmed by SEM observation. Doping with Ga is proven to be effective for suppressing the deep level (DL) emission as well as the long decay component in the scintillation temporal profile. Based on the pulse height spectra, the light yield is estimated to be 1500 photons/5.5-MeV alpha-ray for the undoped ceramics, and the doped ceramics exhibit similar light yields. These results indicate that the high-pressure synthesis method is effective for the synthesis of dense ZnO ceramics scintillators with a fast response.