Luminescence and scintillation kinetics of the Pr3+ doped Lu2Si2O7 single crystal

Single crystal of the Pr3+ doped Lu2Si2O7 was grown to test its luminescence and scintillation characteristics. Absorption, excitation and photoluminescence (PL) spectra manifest the 4f ↔ 5d transitions in the UV spectral region. Evaluation of temperature dependences of both the Pr3+ PL decay times and intensities of the delayed radiative recombination enable to determine the ionization barrier of the 5d1 relaxed excited state of Pr3+, being about 0.7–0.75 eV. Fast scintillation decay and efficient radioluminescence at room temperature indicate a good potential of this material system to become fast, high density scintillator though the mechanism of the host-Pr3+ energy transfer are yet to be understood.