M. Moszynski et al., PROPERTIES OF THE NEW LUAP-CE SCINTILLATOR, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 385(1), 1997, pp. 123-131
The scintillation properties of LuAP (lutetium aluminum perovskite, Lu
AlO3) have been investigated at three different levels of Ce doping: g
reater than or equal to 0, 0.035 and 0.105 mol%. The light yield, in p
hotoelectrons per MeV, was measured as 122 +/- 20, 1300 +/- 100 and 28
50 +/- 200, respectively. The light pulse shapes were largely exponent
ial, with a decay constant of 16.5 +/- 1 ns for all the samples studie
d. In all cases, however, an additional slow component, amounting to a
bout 10 +/- 3% of the total light, was also found, characterized by a
time constant of 74 +/- 7 ns. The sample doped with 0.105 mol% Ce show
ed an energy resolution of 9.3% for the 662 keV full energy peak from
a Cs-137 source. The high detection efficiency of the material for gam
ma-rays (because of its high density of 8.4 g/cm(3)) is confirmed by a
photofraction of about 13% for a specimen with a volume of only 0.05
cm(3). The time resolution for Co-60 gamma-rays at a 1 MeV threshold w
as measured as 160 ps, somewhat poorer than expected. Nevertheless, th
e high light yield, fast light pulse, high detection efficiency for ga
mma-rays and excellent time resolution make this material a very attra
ctive scintillator, particularly in positron emission tomography.