Luminescence characterizations of YAG:Ce crystal via sol-gel method for radiotherapy

Abstract Cerium doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG:Ce) crystal powders were synthesized using the sol-gel method. The effects of doping concentration and sintering atmosphere were investigated via X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and cathodoluminescence (CL). The XRD measurement indicates that doping ions do not change the crystal lattice structure of YAG crystal. PL results show that YAG:Ce samples sintered in inert atmosphere have better luminescence property around 550 nm and the optimum Ce doping concentration is 0.5 mol% as an optimal YAG:Ce powder to fabricate a dosimeter probe. Radioluminescence (RL) properties of crystal dosimeter also has been studied using clinical linear accelerator at the ultra-low dose from 3.6 to 27 cGy with dose rate from 80 to 600 cGy/min. RL measurements for dose rate and total dose show a good linear response of intensity, indicating potential applications in remote radiotherapy and radiation monitoring.