Effect of ion beam and neutron irradiations on the luminescence of polycrystalline Ce-doped Y3Al5O12 ceramics

Polycrystalline ceramics of Ce-doped Y3Al5O12 (Ce: YAG) is characterized as a candidate scintillator for a lost alpha particle measurement on a thermo-nuclear fusion experiments such as ITER. The luminescence intensity for polycrystalline Ce: YAG ceramics is investigated under MeV energy ion irradiation with the ion flux up to ∼6.7 × 1016 m−2 s−1 and with the ion fluence of ∼1.0 × 1019 m−2. The luminescence has a good linearity up to ion flux mentioned above. In view of the fluence, the luminescence degradation is observed, but it is found to be a tolerable level. In neutron and gamma ray irradiation experiments at a fission reactor, the defect such as blobs is appeared in irradiated samples. It is found that the thermal annealing is effective for the recovery of the luminescence as well as the contraction of the defect.