Experiment investigation on pulsed gamma-ray fluence rate effect on Yb-doped yttrium aluminum garnet scintillator

As an ultrafast inorganic scintillator, Yb-doped Y3Al5O12 [yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG)] crystals have potential applications in various fields, such as ultrafast radiation detection, solar neutrino detection, pulsed radiation imaging, and nuclear reaction kinetics diagnosis. In this work, the fluence rate effect of pulsed γ rays on the Yb:YAG scintillation crystal was investigated at the “QiangGuang-I” facility. The experiment results show that the fluence rate linear response upper limit of the Yb:YAG crystal is about 9.1 × 1018 MeV cm−2 s−1. The Yb:YAG crystal changed from colorless to yellow, and the relative light output decreased to 63% of its initial value after the irradiations, which were attributed to the radiation induced damage. It is deduced that oxygen vacancies and divalent Yb cations were generated after the irradiations.