Single crystals of Pr-doped Lu3(GaxAl1–x)5O12, with x = 0 to 1, were grown by using the micro pull-down method. Luminescence and scintillation characteristics of a sample set were studied with regard to their dependence upon the Ga content. For x = 0.4, a high figure-of-merit material was obtained with elevated density, high efficiency and a very fast scintillation response below 20ns; without any slower components. The improvement of the scintillation performance was attributed to the absence of antisite LuAl defects, which was achieved here for the first time in bulk garnet single crystals grown from a high-temperature melt.

Antisite Defect-Free Lu3(GaxAl1–x)5O12:Pr Scintillator. M.Nikl, J.Pejchal, E.Mihokova, J.A.Mares, H.Ogino, A.Yoshikawa, T.Fukuda, A.Vedda, C.D’Ambrosio: Applied Physics Letters , 2006, 88[14], 141916 (3pp)