NIR-emitting scintillation of YAG optical ceramics as a testing platform for radio-bioimaging

Garnet optical ceramics have garnered attention as easily customizable and cost-effective scintillating materials, primarily due to the garnet host’s ability to incorporate rare-earth ions as luminescent activators in substantial amounts. This enables the selection of near-infrared emitting species, thereby facilitating scintillation emission within the transparency spectral window of biological tissues that is of particular relevance for advanced imaging strategies. In this study, we examined the scintillation properties of rare-earth (Yb, Er, Tm and Pr) doped Y3Al5O12 optical ceramics. We explore the impact of rare-earth ion concentration on the radioluminescence intensity, decay kinetics, and radiation stability of this class of materials.