CERIUM DOPED LUTETIUM ALUMINUM GARNET OPTICALLY TRANSPARENT CERAMICS FOR SCINTILLATIONS

Optically transparent ceramics for scintillations are briefly introduced.Then the microstructure and optical properties of cerium doped lutetium aluminum garnet (LuAG:Ce) fabricated by the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics are reported.Optically transparent LuAG:Ce with a homogeneous microstructure and a 77% optical in-line transmittance were successfully fabricated by vacuum-sintering via both solid-state reaction and co-precipitation route.The scintillation characteristics were first observed underγ- ray excitation.The light yield of the prepared LuAG:Ce transparent ceramics is 4 818 photons/MeV,identical to about 45% that of LuAG:Ce single crystals and 60% that of bismuth germanate(BGO) single crystals.Finally,it is concluded that the optical properties of transparent ceramics mainly depend on isotropy cubic lattices,high-quality starting powders,and the appropriate technique to suppress optical scatter loss.