Luminescence and scintillation properties of Yb – Codoped GAGG:Ce single crystal

Co-doping is one of the important methods to optimize the performance of scintillation crystal. In this work, GAGG:1.0 at.%Ce,x at.%Yb(x = 0, 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0) crystals were grown by Czochralski method. Relationships between Yb concentration and optical, photoluminescence (PL), scintillation properties of GAGG:Ce,Yb are investigated, including absorption, light output, decay time. Moreover, PL decay curves were measured at various temperatures between 77 and 500 K to investigate the luminescence thermal quenching behavior. The results show that with the increase of Yb3+ concentration, the transmittance of GAGG crystal increases. Decay time is also significantly improved. 1.0 at.%Yb co-doped sample showed the fastest PL decay time of 36 ns among the Yb-co-doped samples. In addition, the impact of Yb on Vickers hardness was also studied.