Band-gap and Band-edge Engineering of Multicomponent Garnet Scintillators: A First-principles Study

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to systematically explore how substitutional doping modifies the band edges of garnet scintillators, enabling targeted electronic structure tuning to improve performance.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive computational screening method to identify dopants that selectively alter conduction or valence band edges in garnet scintillators.

Findings

Doping with rare earth cations has minimal effect on band structure.

Replacing Al with ions of different sizes significantly impacts band edges.

Certain dopants can selectively lower CBM or raise VBM to eliminate traps.

Abstract

Complex doping schemes in RE$_3$Al$_5$O$_{12}$ (RE=rare earth element) garnet compounds have recently led to pronounced improvements in scintillator performance. Specifically, by admixing lutetium and yttrium aluminate garnets with gallium and gadolinium, the band-gap was altered in a manner that facilitated the removal of deleterious electron trapping associated with cation antisite defects. Here, we expand upon this initial work to systematically investigate the effect of substitutional admixing on the energy levels of band edges. Density functional theory was used to survey potential admixing candidates that modify either the conduction band minimum (CBM) or valence band maximum (VBM). We considered two sets of compositions based on Lu$_3$B$_5$O$_{12}$ where B = Al, Ga, In, As, and Sb; and RE$_3$Al$_5$O$_{12}$, where RE = Lu, Gd, Dy, and Er. We found that admixing with various RE cations does not appreciably effect the band gap or band edges. In contrast, substituting Al with cations of dissimilar ionic radii has a profound impact on the band structure. We further show that certain dopants can be used to selectively modify only the CBM or the VBM. Specifically, Ga and In decrease the band gap by lowering the CBM, while As and Sb decrease the band gap by raising the VBM. These results demonstrate a powerful approach to quickly screen the impact of dopants on the electronic structure of scintillator compounds, identifying those dopants which alter the band edges in very specific ways to eliminate both electron and hole traps responsible for performance limitations. This approach should be broadly applicable for the optimization of electronic and optical performance for a wide range of compounds by tuning the VBM and CBM.