Luminescence and scintillation characteristics of Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce3+ scintillators

•Scintillation properties of GAGG:Ce & LuAG:Ce are compared.•LY dependence on sample height and shaping time are studied.•Intrinsic LY of 56,500ph/MeV and loss coefficient of 0.175cm−1 are obtained for GAGG:Ce.•Intrinsic LY of 29,000ph/MeV and loss coefficient of 0.380cm−1 are obtained for LuAG:Ce.•PL decays at room and low temperatures are studied for GAGG:Ce. Cerium-doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 single crystals were grown by the Czochralski method with 1at.% cerium. Absorption, luminescence and scintillation characteristics were investigated. The light yield and energy resolution were measured under 662keV γ-ray excitation. The characteristic emission band of Ce3+ 5d–4f transition peaking around 525nm was observed in the photoluminescence of Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce. The light yield of 56,100ph/MeV and energy resolution of 6.8% were obtained for a 5×5×1mm3 Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce sample. The light yield dependence on the sample height and on the shaping time was also studied and compared with Lu3Al5O12:Ce crystal.