Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 486 (2002) 74–78 Potential of existing growth methods of LuAP and related scintillators A.G. Petrosyan a, *, G.O. Shirinyan a , K.L. Ovanesyan a , C. P ! edrini b , C. Dujardin b , N. Garnier b , S. Sowinski b , P. Lecoq c , A. Belsky c a Institute for Physical Research, Armenian National Academy of Science, 378410 Ashtarak-2, Armenia b Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie des Mat ! eriaux Luminescents, Universit ! e Lyon I, Campus de La Doua, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France c CERN, Division EP, CH-1211 Gen " eve 23, Switzerland Abstract LuAP and LuYAP are promising single-crystal scintillators for use in the next generation of positron emission tomographs. The practical crystal composition in terms of major components and Ce-doping level is however under discussion yet. Bridgman and Czochralski melt techniques are used to develop various crystal compositions for scintillation studies and final composition choice. In this paper we compare performance of 30 LuAP, LuYAP and YAP variously Ce-doped single-crystals grown by Bridgman technique, which reflect potential of existing materials and technologies. In addition to available optical properties, the chemical composition of solid solutions is described in terms of variation of Ce concentration and of Lu/Y ratio. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 81.10.h; 61.72S; 29.40M Keywords: LUAP/YAP scintillators; Ce 3+ ; Bridgman growth; Crystal composition; Light yield 1. Introduction Since the first reports in mid-1990s [1–4], Ce- doped LuAlO 3 (LuAP) has achieved (together with LSO [5]) a position of dominance among fast inorganic scintillators for construction of highly sensitive positron emission tomographs (PET)—an important clinical and research imaging technique. It is expected that application of LuAP, which possesses a high-density (8.34g/cm 3 ), high-photo- electric fraction (32.1% at 511keV) and superb scintillation decay time (18 ns: 2 times faster than LSO), may result in scanners operating at very high count rates and short distances (arrays of 2  2  10mm 3 crystals may be efficient) and providing for a sensitivity of 30 kcps/MBq and a spatial resolution of 1–2mm. These figures are much better than those in presently existing PET scanners. The Crystal Clear Collaboration plans to design and built several small animal PET scanners making use of these scintillator materials. LuAlO 3 is considered as the most unstable compound among the rare-earth orthoaluminates (space group D 2h 16 , perovskite-type structure) how- ever, it easily lends itself to crystallization from the melt. So far, Czochralski and Bridgman techniques were successfully applied to Ce-doped material *Corresponding author. Tel.: 3741-288150; fax: 37432-31172. E-mail address: pet@ipr.sci.am (A.G. Petrosyan). 0168-9002/02/$-see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-9002(02)00677-0