Development of scintillation materials for PET scanners

The Czochralski Growth of (Lu1−xGdx)2SiO5:Dy Single Crystals: Structural, Optical, and Dielectric Characterization

“…Single crystals of (Gd 1-y Dy y ) 2 SiO 5 (GSO:Dy) and (Lu 1-y Dy y ) 2 SiO 5 (LSO:Dy) with y = 0.05 and solid solution single crystals of (Lu 1-x-y Gd x Dy y ) 2 SiO 5 (LGSO:Dy) with nominal values of x = 0.192, 0.384, 0.576, 0.768 and y = 0.04 were grown by the Czochralski method in an inductively heated iridium crucible under the nitrogen atmosphere. The starting materials of 99.99% purity were used.…”

“…Structural data of the LGSO:Dy solid solution crystals, presented in this paper, imply that the phase transition from the Lu 2 SiO 5 to Gd 2 SiO 5 type structure is expected for Gd 3þ concentration x > 0.8. Thus, we can suppose that, among all the solid solution samples, the (Lu 0.2 Gd 0.8 ) 2 SiO 5 :Dy crystal is the closest to a phase-transition composition and the breaking of the LSO type structure. Thus, some additional imperfection in this lattice can appear.…”

Fast 5d-4f luminescence in Pr3+-doped K3Lu (PO4)2

“…In particular, the rapid evolution in nuclear medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) has triggered an increased demand for fast radiation detectors [1,2] in order to improve the resolution of tomographic image. Most of the scintillators presently used in CT and PET scanners are based on materials activated with Ce 3 þ ion, which exhibits efficient and relatively fast ($ 20-70 ns) 5d-4f electric-dipole emission in a broad spectral range (350-600 nm) [3]. Recently much attention has been turned on the study of the 5d-4f emission of Pr 3 þ ions in wide band-gap compounds.…”

“…Our search for novel materials showing fast 5d-4f emission of Pr 3 þ [6,7] has led us to the synthesis and investigation of the timeresolved spectroscopic properties of the double phosphate K 3 Lu(PO 4 ) 2 (KLuP) doped with this ion. KLuP is characterized by a high effective atomic number of $ 44.5, that is higher than one for Y 3 Al 5 O 12 (29.5) or YAlO 3 (31.4) widely used as scintillator materials, and potentially advantageous for X-and γ-rays detection. This host crystallizes with a trigonal unit cell, space group P-3, density 3.9 g/cm 3 at RT [8].…”

Crystal Growth and Luminescence Properties of Cs3LuBr6:Ce3+

“…In general, our crystal growth program includes studies of starting material preparation, growth procedures and characterization of grown crystals. Since the discovery of NaI(Tl) scintillator in 1948 by Hofstadter 1) , many efforts have been made to improve the characteristics of scintillators such as light yield, fluorescence decay time, energy resolution, detection efficiency, and radiation hardness 2,3) .…”