Persistent Luminescence in Ce, Cr-Doped Garnet Crystals

In persistent luminescence materials, energy can be stored in controlled traps/defects located within the bandgap of the material. The materials can be “charge” under brief irradiation, namely few minutes under various wavelengths ranging from natural daylight to x-rays [1]. This energy is then released at room temperature for several hours via light emission once the excitation is stopped. The present work is focused on the analysis of the persistent luminescence properties on single crystals of Ce
³⁺
and Cr
³⁺
co-doped gadolinium-yttrium-aluminum-gallium garnets of general formula Y
3-x
Gd
x
Al
2
Ga
3
O
12
(GYAGG), to promote new applications of the persistent materials. Such single crystals can be very useful to study and better understand the persistent luminescence phenomena and can be elaborated by the Czochralski method. Some pictures of the obtained crystals are presented in Figure 1.