Comparative Studies of Optical and Scintillation Properties between LiGaO2 and LiAlO2 Crystals

We have investigated optical and scintillation properties of LiGaO2 and LiAlO2 crystals. From the transmittance spectra, the absorption edges were found to be around 200 nm but wider band gap was confirmed for LiAlO2 than LiGaO2. Both photoluminescence and scintillation spectra showed a broad emission band peaking at 340 nm in the both crystals. The scintillation decay times of LiGaO2 were 460 ns and 2.8 µs while that of LiAlO2 was 2 µs. Under neutron irradiation from 252Cf, the absolute scintillation light yields of LiGaO2 and LiAlO2 were 3300 ± 300 and 7200 ± 700 ph/n, respectively.