Scintillation Properties of Pr-Doped Lanthanum Pyrosilicate Single Crystals
Prom Kantuptim,
Takumi Kato,
Daisuke Nakauchi,
Noriaki Kawaguchi,
Takayuki Yanagida
Affiliations
Prom Kantuptim
Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma 630-0192, Nara, Japan
Takumi Kato
Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma 630-0192, Nara, Japan
Daisuke Nakauchi
Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma 630-0192, Nara, Japan
Noriaki Kawaguchi
Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma 630-0192, Nara, Japan
Takayuki Yanagida
Division of Materials Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama, Ikoma 630-0192, Nara, Japan
Five samples of lanthanum pyrosilicate (La2Si2O7) single crystals with 0.5–10.0% Praseodymium (Pr)-doping concentrations were synthesized by the floating-zone method. Photoluminescence and scintillation properties of these crystals were investigated in this study for the first time. The multiple emissions from electron transitions of Pr3+ were observed on both a photoluminescence emission map and scintillation spectra, including the desired emission band of Pr3+ 5d–4f transition at 250–310 nm. The major photoluminescence and scintillation decay times were approximately 19 and 26 ns, respectively. When compared with commercial scintillators such as Tl-doped cesium iodide (CsI), the Pr-doped La2Si2O7 samples presented a respectively low afterglow level of 32 ppm after 20 ms of X-ray irradiation. Under 662 keV γ-ray irradiation from 137Cs, the 3.0% Pr-doped La2Si2O7 sample presented a scintillation light yield of 3200 ph/MeV, which was the best value among the tested samples.
