Photoluminescence and scintillation properties of Ce-doped Sr2Al2SiO7 crystals

Undoped and Ce-doped Sr2Al2SiO7 bulk crystals with different concentrations of Ce were synthesized by the floating zone method. Under X-ray irradiation, the both undoped and Ce-doped samples show scintillation with broad emission with decay time constants of approximately 30 and 300 ns. By utilizing photoluminescence (PL) techniques, we attributed the origin of the former emission component is due to the 5d-4f transitions of Ce3+ while the one of the latter emission is due the host. The scintillation afterglow levels depends on the concentration of Ce and are on an order of ppm. From the pulse height spectrum measured under Am-241 59.5 keV gamma-ray irradiation, the 0.3% Ce-doped Sr2Al2SiO7 crystal was revealed to show the absolute scintillation light yield of 1100 ph/MeV, which is the highest among the present samples. In addition, the Ce-doped samples show TL properties with a glow peak at 250 degrees C and a shoulder around 130 degrees C.