Cerium-doped Lutetium Aluminum Garnet [LuAG(Ce)] Crystals

Cerium doped Lutetium Aluminum Garnet (Or Ce:LuAG chemical formula Lu3Al5O12) is a relatively dense and fast scintillation material. Its density of 6.73 g/cm3 is about 94% of the density of BGO (7.13 g/cm3). Its decay time is much faster (70 ns) than that of BGO (300 ns). This is of advantage in time dependent and coincidence measurements. The wavelength of scintillation emission is about 535 nm, which is ideal for photodiode and avalanche diode readout. The material can also be used for imaging screens, similarly to Ce:YAG. A particular advantage of Ce:LuAG is its higher density resulting in thinner screens with higher spatial resolution. The material is mechanically and chemically stable, and can be machined into a variety of shapes and sizes including prisms, spheres and very thin plates.