Development of LuAG-based scintillator crystals - A review

A review of research and development of Lu₃Al₅O ₁₂ (LuAG)-based single crystal scintillators is presented. Crystals of this type have been prepared by the micro-pulling down method at the initial stage of material screening and by Czochralski or Bridgman methods to obtain higher quality and larger size single crystals afterward. Several different activators, namely Ce³⁺, Pr³⁺, Yb³⁺ and Sc ³⁺ have been reported in the literature and such doped LuAG single crystals have been extensively studied to understand a number of issues, including: the scintillation mechanism, underlying energy transfer and trapping processes including the nature and role of material defects involved in the scintillation process and their relation to manufacturing technology. Significant improvements in the understanding of aluminum garnet scintillators lead to the discovery of multicomponent garnet single crystal scintillators in 2011, which are described. These materials gave rise to new class of ultraefficient complex oxide scintillators, the light yield of which considerably exceeds the values achieved for the best Ce-doped orthosilicate scintillators.