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 YAl,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^\circC) 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 YAl,16a might be used as a potential candidate for scintillator. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]