Preparation and Characterization of Non-Stoichiometric Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) with Antisite Defects as a Potential Scintillator

Non-stoichiometric YAG powder samples were prepared via a simple sol-gel combustion method by introducing antisite defects Y
_Al,16a
intentionally. The investigation of structure and luminescence properties confirmed that the antisite defects with different concentrations can be created through adjusting the composition in YAG at relatively low (1000°C) temperature. The X-ray excited luminescence and vacuum ultra-violet spectroscopies show that the luminescence intensity of non-stoichiometric YAG increases with increasing antisite defects concentration, which is much stronger than that of the stoichiometric counterpart under the same conditions. It indicates that non-stoichiometric YAG with antisite defects Y
_Al,16a
might be used as a potential candidate for scintillator.