Effects of Zr4+ and Hf4+ co-doping on luminescence and scintillation properties of LuYAG:Pr3+ single crystals grown by micro-pulling-down technique

In this study, we aim to clarify the luminescence and scintillation performance of 0.2 at%Pr3+-doped LuYAG scintillators with either zirconium or hafnium co-doping obtained using the micro-pulling-down (μ-PD) method. Under radiation excitation, scintillation properties such as light yield, decay time, and afterglow level were measured and compared to non-co-doped LuYAG:Pr3+. The positive effect of Zr and Hf co-doping is to significantly shorten the scintillation time response. The negative effect is the decrease of scintillation yield and increase of afterglow. We propose that the positively charged defects induced by Zr/Hf co-doping are responsible for the spatial correlated traps around Pr centers causing the shortened scintillation decay via non-radiative recombination processes, and the deep traps as well for the prolonged afterglow.