Pr doped Lu₃Al₅O₁₂(LuAG), which was first introduced in 2005, has attracted great attention for its good scintillator performance having high density (6.7 g/cm3), fast decay time(~20 ns), high light yield and excellent energy resolution of 4.6%. Those demonstrated it a competitive scintillator.

Pr:LuAG Scintillator Crystal— A promising Fast Scintillator used for TOF

Scintillators with high light yield and fast decay are essential in the time-of-flight (TOF) technique for a satisfactory coincidence timing resolution to give precise TOF information. Among garnets, Pr:Lu₃Al₅O₁₂ was pointed out as a promising fast scintillator already in 2005. Pr:LuAG has a decay time of about 20 ns, which is even shorter than that of Ce:LSO. The light yield of Pr:LuAG is 3 times higher than that of BGO. In addition, Pr:LuAG has a high density of 6.7 g/cm³ which is important of x and g-ray detection, as well as an outstanding energy resolution of 4.6% at 662 keV that is beneficial for gamma ray discrimination. It has been attracting much attention and is presently commercially used in Positron Emission Mammography (PEM).