Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation
The scope of this study was to evaluate the response of Ce-doped gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet (GAGG:Ce) crystalline scintillator under medical X-ray irradiation for medical imaging applications. A 10 × 10 × 10 mm<sup>3</sup> crystal was irradiated at X-ray tube voltages ranging fro...
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2025-06-01
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| author | Anastasios Dimitrakopoulos Christos Michail Ioannis Valais George Fountos Ioannis Kandarakis Nektarios Kalyvas |
| author_facet | Anastasios Dimitrakopoulos Christos Michail Ioannis Valais George Fountos Ioannis Kandarakis Nektarios Kalyvas |
| author_sort | Anastasios Dimitrakopoulos |
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| description | The scope of this study was to evaluate the response of Ce-doped gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet (GAGG:Ce) crystalline scintillator under medical X-ray irradiation for medical imaging applications. A 10 × 10 × 10 mm<sup>3</sup> crystal was irradiated at X-ray tube voltages ranging from 50 kVp to 150 kVp. The crystal’s compatibility with several commercially available optical photon detectors was evaluated using the spectral matching factor (SMF) along with the absolute efficiency (AE) and the effective efficiency (EE). In addition, the energy-absorption efficiency (EAE), the quantum-detection efficiency (QDE) as well as the zero-frequency detective quantum detection efficiency DQE(0) were determined. The crystal demonstrated satisfactory AE values as high as 26.3 E.U. (where 1 E.U. = 1 μW∙m<sup>−2</sup>/(mR∙s<sup>−1</sup>)) at 150 kVp, similar, or in some cases, even superior to other cerium-doped scintillator materials. It also exhibits adequate DQE(0) performance ranging from 0.99 to 0.95 across all the examined X-ray tube voltages. Moreover, it showed high spectral compatibility with commonly used photoreceptors in modern day such as complementary metal–oxide–semiconductors (CMOS) and charge-coupled-devices (CCD) with SMF values of 0.95 for CCD with broadband anti-reflection coating and 0.99 for hybrid CMOS blue. The aforementioned properties of this scintillator material were indicative of its superior efficiency in the examined medical energy range, compared to other commonly used scintillators. |
| format | Article |
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| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
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| series | Crystals |
| spelling | doaj-art-eb7c9b446f4e4ccb845b00cff9a50e112025-08-20T03:08:10ZengMDPI AGCrystals2073-43522025-06-0115759010.3390/cryst15070590Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray RadiationAnastasios Dimitrakopoulos0Christos Michail1Ioannis Valais2George Fountos3Ioannis Kandarakis4Nektarios Kalyvas5Radiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceRadiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceRadiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceRadiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceRadiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceRadiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, Ag. Spyridonos, 12210 Athens, GreeceThe scope of this study was to evaluate the response of Ce-doped gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet (GAGG:Ce) crystalline scintillator under medical X-ray irradiation for medical imaging applications. A 10 × 10 × 10 mm<sup>3</sup> crystal was irradiated at X-ray tube voltages ranging from 50 kVp to 150 kVp. The crystal’s compatibility with several commercially available optical photon detectors was evaluated using the spectral matching factor (SMF) along with the absolute efficiency (AE) and the effective efficiency (EE). In addition, the energy-absorption efficiency (EAE), the quantum-detection efficiency (QDE) as well as the zero-frequency detective quantum detection efficiency DQE(0) were determined. The crystal demonstrated satisfactory AE values as high as 26.3 E.U. (where 1 E.U. = 1 μW∙m<sup>−2</sup>/(mR∙s<sup>−1</sup>)) at 150 kVp, similar, or in some cases, even superior to other cerium-doped scintillator materials. It also exhibits adequate DQE(0) performance ranging from 0.99 to 0.95 across all the examined X-ray tube voltages. Moreover, it showed high spectral compatibility with commonly used photoreceptors in modern day such as complementary metal–oxide–semiconductors (CMOS) and charge-coupled-devices (CCD) with SMF values of 0.95 for CCD with broadband anti-reflection coating and 0.99 for hybrid CMOS blue. The aforementioned properties of this scintillator material were indicative of its superior efficiency in the examined medical energy range, compared to other commonly used scintillators.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/15/7/590GAGG:Cescintillatorsradiation detectorssingle crystalsmedical imaging |
| spellingShingle | Anastasios Dimitrakopoulos Christos Michail Ioannis Valais George Fountos Ioannis Kandarakis Nektarios Kalyvas Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation Crystals GAGG:Ce scintillators radiation detectors single crystals medical imaging |
| title | Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation |
| title_full | Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation |
| title_fullStr | Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation |
| title_short | Experimental Evaluation of GAGG:Ce Crystalline Scintillator Properties Under X-Ray Radiation |
| title_sort | experimental evaluation of gagg ce crystalline scintillator properties under x ray radiation |
| topic | GAGG:Ce scintillators radiation detectors single crystals medical imaging |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/15/7/590 |
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