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The Ce-doped (Lu y Gd 1Àx ) 3 (Ga y ,Al 1Ày ) 5 O 12 single crystals were grown by the micropulling down method. Their structure and chemical composition were checked by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) techniques. Optical, luminescent, and scintillation characteristics were measured by the methods of time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy, including the light yield and scintillation decay. Balanced Gd and Ga admixture into the Lu 3 Al 5 O 12 structure provided an excellent scintillator where the effect of shallow traps was suppressed, the spectrally corrected light yield value exceeded 40 000 photons/MeV, and scintillation decay was dominated by a 53 ns decay time value which is close to that of Ce 3+ photoluminescence decay. This study provides an excellent example of a combinatorial approach where targeted single-crystal compositions are obtained by a flexible, time saving, and cost-effective crystal growth technique.

The effects of organic moieties on the luminescence properties of organic−inorganic layered perovskite-type compounds were investigated. Three single crystals were fabricated, namely, (C 4 H 9 NH 3 ) 2 PbBr 4 {C4}, (C 6 H 5 CH 2 NH 3 ) 2 PbBr 4 {Ben}, and (C 6 H 5 C 2 H 4 NH 3 ) 2 PbBr 4 {Phe}. Among the single crystals, the exciton emission of Phe showed the highest quantum efficiencies. The quantum efficiencies of C4 and Ben only were 0.02 and 0.17 times that of Phe, respectively. The radiative and nonradiative decay rates were calculated from the quantum efficiencies and luminescence lifetimes. The relative values of the quantum efficiencies were in accordance with the values of the radiative decay rates. The results indicate that the luminescence properties of the organic−inorganic hybrid compounds may be governed by the excitonic properties of the inorganic layer and not by the concentration of any structural defects. Focusing on the geometry of the inorganic layers, the Pb−Br−Pb bond angles between the adjoining PbBr 6 2− octahedra of each compound were 150°(Ben), 152°(Phe), and 155°(C4). In addition, only Phe showed structural distortion inside the PbBr 6 2− octahedron with Br−Pb−Br bond angles of 171°. The increase in the radiative decay rate can be attributed to the increase in the reduced mass of the excitons from these structural distortions that lead to a decrease in the Bohr radius of the excitons. The results indicate that the luminescence properties of the organic−inorganic hybrid compounds are governed by the structural geometry of the inorganic layer.

To evaluate the X-ray-induced afterglow phenomenon, we developed an ionizing-radiation-induced luminescence characterization system equipped with a pulse-width-tunable X-ray source. The system consists of a pulse X-ray tube and a detector system based on photon counting. The excitation pulse width was tunable from nano- to millisecond ranges, and the dynamic range of the X-ray-induced afterglow was 106. Conventional scintillators for X-ray CT or security systems, namely, Bi4Ge3O12, CdWO4, Tl-doped CsI, and Tb and Pr-codoped Gd2O2S, were evaluated for the performance test. Results show that the afterglow time profiles of these scintillators are consistent with generally known results with high accuracy.

We investigated scintillation properties of organic–inorganic layered perovskite-type compounds under gamma-ray and X-ray irradiation. A crystal of the hybrid compounds with phenethyl amine (17 × 23 × 4 mm) was successfully fabricated by the poor-solvent diffusion method. The bulk sample showed superior scintillation properties with notably high light yield (14,000 photons per MeV) under gamma-rays and very fast decay time (11 ns). The light yield was about 1.4 time higher than that of common inorganic material (GSO:Ce) confirmed under 137Cs and 57Co gamma-rays. In fact, the scintillation light yield was the highest among the organic–inorganic hybrid scintillators. Moreover, it is suggested that the light yield of the crystal was proportional with the gamma-ray energy across 122–662 keV. In addition, the scintillation from the crystal had a lifetime of 11 ns which was much faster than that of GSO:Ce (48 ns) under X-ray irradiation. These results suggest that organic–inorganic layered perovskite-type compounds are promising scintillator for gamma-ray detection.