High Efficiency of Lutetium Silicate Scintillators, Ce-Doped LPS and LYSO Crystals for Medical Applications

The paper presents two cerium doped lutetium silicate crystals: pyrosilicate Ce:Lu2Si2O7 (LPS) and Ce: Lu2(1-x)Y2xSiO5 (LYSO). These two crystals exhibit the expected requirements for gamma detection: high density and high atomic number, high scintillation light yield, good energy resolution and fast response. LPS and LYSO crystals doped with cerium were grown by the Czochralski process. The crystal growth parameters were studied and optimized. Development of scintillators requires good understanding of the scintillation process. The location within the forbidden band gap of the localized lanthanide energy levels is analyzed by time resolved spectroscopy and thermoluminescence studies.