Scintillation and thermally-stimulated luminescence properties of Pr-doped SrAl2O4 single crystals

SrAl2O4 single crystals with different concentrations of Pr (0.5-5%) were grown by the floating zone method. Both the photoluminescence and scintillation spectra consist of a broad emission band around 300 nm and several sharp emissions around 500-1100 nm due to Pr3+. The decay time constants of these emissions are 20-50 ns and 70-200 μs, respectively, which are typical values of Pr3+. From the pulse height spectrum under 137Cs γ-ray irradiation, it was found that 3% Pr-doped SrAl2O4 shows the highest light yield (∼480 ph/MeV) among the present samples.