Scintillation Properties of Pr-Doped Lanthanum Pyrosilicate Single Crystals.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]