Scintillation and thermally-stimulated luminescence properties of Pr-doped SrAl₂O₄ single crystals

SrAl₂O₄ single crystals with different concentrations of Pr (0.5–5%) were grown by the floating zone method. Both the photoluminescence and scintillation spectra consist of a broad emission band around 300 nm and several sharp emissions around 500–1100 nm due to Pr³⁺. The decay time constants of these emissions are 20–50 ns and 70–200 μs, respectively, which are typical values of Pr³⁺. From the pulse height spectrum under ¹³⁷Cs γ-ray irradiation, it was found that 3% Pr-doped SrAl₂O₄ shows the highest light yield (∼480 ph/MeV) among the present samples.