A basic spectroscopic measurements of luminescence, absorption, luminescenc
e excitation spectra and emission kinetic measurements on YAG crystals acti
vated with cerium and magnesium are presented. We report that the Ce3+ lumi
nescence decay constant, at 65 ns, is independent of Ce concentrations (fro
m 0.05 to 0.2%) and that it does not change with the presence or absence of
the Mg co-dopant. Nevertheless, we find that under pulsed laser excitation
at 290 nm the rise time in Ce luminescence time profiles is effectively sh
orter in the Mg co-doped samples.