Hadron-Induced Radiation Damage in LuAG:Ce Scintillating Ceramics

Because of their potential low cost, bright light, and fast decay time, LuAG:Ce ceramic scintillators have attracted a broad interest in the high-energy physics community. One crucial issue for their application in future high-energy physics experiments is their radiation hardness against neutrons and protons expected at future hadron colliders. We report optical and scintillation performance of 1-mm LuAG:Ce ceramic samples doped with Mg
²⁺
(and Ca
²⁺
) and their radiation damage induced by hadrons. While Mg
²⁺
co-doping improves their light output, Ca
²⁺
co-doping improves their fast to total (F/T) ratio. LuAG:Ce ceramic samples were irradiated at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), Los Alamos, NM, USA, by neutrons up to
$6.7\times 10^{15}\,\,\text{n}_{\mathrm {eq}}$
/cm
²
and by 24-GeV and 800-MeV protons at CERN PS-IRRAD up to
$1.2\times 10^{15}$
p/cm
²
and at LANSCE up to
$2.3\times 10^{14}$
p/cm
²
, respectively. All samples show excellent radiation hardness with more than 90% of light after irradiation. The RIAC values induced by neutrons are found to be a factor of 2 smaller than lutetium–yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO:Ce) crystals. The RIAC values induced by protons are also found a factor of 2 smaller than LYSO:Ce crystals in LuAG:Ce ceramic samples with good optical quality. Research and development will continue to develop LuAG:Ce scintillating ceramics with improved optical quality for future investigation.