Performance comparison between ceramic Ce:GAGG and single crystal Ce:GAGG with digital-SiPM

The Gd₃Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ (Ce:GAGG) is a new inorganic scintillator known for its attractive properties such as high light yield, stopping power and relatively fast decay time. In this study, we fabricated a ceramic Ce:GAGG scintillator as a cost-effective alternative to single crystal Ce:GAGG and, for the first time, investigated their performances when coupled to the digital silicon photomultiplier (dSiPM) - a new type of photosensor designed for applications in medical imaging, high energy and astrophysics. Compared to 3 × 3 × 2 mm³ sized single crystal Ce:GAGG, the translucent ceramic Ce:GAGG, which has a much lower transmittance than the single crystal, was determined to give an output signal amplitude that is approximately 61% of single crystal Ce:GAGG. The energy resolution of the 511 keV annihilation peak of a ²²Na source was measured to be 9.9 ± 0.2% and 13.0 ± 0.3% for the single and ceramic scintillators respectively. On the other hand, the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of ceramic Ce:GAGG was 307 ± 23 ps, better than the 465 ± 37 ps acquired with single crystals - probably attributed to its slightly faster decay time and higher proportion of the fast decay component. The ceramic Ce:GAGG may be a promising cost-effective candidate for applications that do not require thick scintillators such as x-ray detectors and charged particle detectors, and those that require time-of-flight capabilities.