Comprehending the role of trap centers and host energy transfers in excitation density dependent kinetics of Ce doped Gd3Ga3Al2O12scintillator; an unresolved scintillation characteristic

Single crystal of Ce doped Gd3Ga3Al2O12 is one of the most studied advanced scintillators currently. The scintillation kinetics has been investigated with different excitations. The higher excitation density of alpha particles quenches the scintillation light yield but on the contrary the decay curve gets accelerated with gamma rays unlike that have been typically observed for conventionally used halide scintillators. In view of resolving this unusual behavior, a thorough investigation has been first time performed by carrying out systematic experiments on temperature dependent scintillation properties with gamma and alpha irradiation. The dependence of light yield for both radiations behaves differently with temperature with a notable early onset of quenching for charged particles. All three decay components also behave differently with temperature to indicate the various mechanisms governing the relaxation of excited charged carriers. At some temperatures the decay time components indeed behave in the similar manner as measured for halide crystals. The maximum difference in decay components carrying major amplitude occurs close to room temperatures leading to better discrimination ability. A strong correlation with thermo-luminescence properties has been observed to investigate the role of defect structure. A comprehensive model based on the prominent role of charged carriers released from trap centers along with the energy transfer and migration via Gd sub-lattice in governing the scintillation properties has been convincingly presented. It has demonstrated precisely the unusual behavior of this material but can be extended more considerably to describe various properties of other scintillators as well. •Single crystals of Ce doped Gd3Ga3Al2O12 were grown by Czochralski method.•The light yield quenches under massive particle radiations but the decay time slows down.•A model is proposed to explain this strike difference from halide scintillator.•Temperature dependent kinetics studied under different radiations.•The role of defect structure and host energy transfer with excitation kinetics for alpha and gamma.