Luminescence and scintillation properties of rare-earth-doped LuF₃ scintillation crystals

The Nd-doped and Er-doped LuF₃ single crystals were grown by the micro-pulling-down method to study their scintillation properties in the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) region. The doubly Nd-Er codoped single crystal was grown to study possibility of scintillation performance improvement by energy transfer from Er³⁺ to Nd³⁺ ions. The LiF flux was to avoid phase transition below melting temperature. The 1%Nd-doped sample showed the highest overall scintillation efficiency under X-ray excitation which was 7 times as high as that of the LaF₃:Nd 8% standard. The leading Nd³⁺ 5d-4f emission was situated at 176 nm, while the Er³⁺ 5d-4f emission for Er-doped samples was observed at 163 nm, which better matches the sensitivity of some VUV-sensitive photodetectors. The optimum Er concentration was determined to be around 1-3 mol%. No Er³⁺ 5d-4f emission was observed for the doubly Er,Nd-codoped sample due to energy transfer from the Er³⁺ to Nd³⁺ ions. Slight improvement of the light yield was observed in the doubly-doped sample with respect to the Nd-only doped one.