A novel process for transparent oxide ceramic scintillator with a composition of Gd 1.94-x Y x Eu 0.06 O 3 was developed. The process consists of a glycine-nitrate combustion synthesis of nano-sized starting powder and subsequent controlled sintering and annealing steps. The organic molecules remaining in the as-combusted powder were efficiently removed by the combined heat-treatment at vacuum and air atmospheres. Hot-pressed ceramic scintillators show transparent optical state and high light output. Transparent optical ceramic scintillator with a high content of Gd (up to 80 mol%) was fabricated by the process. The measured light output of Gd 1.54 Y 0.4 Eu 0.06 O 3 ceramic scintillator was about two times higher that that of CdWO 4 single crystal. In a typical radiation detection system, the scintillator plays the key role of converting the incident energy of ionizing radiation into scintillation light photons, then the emitted lights are collected by the under-laid photosensor. This specific application requires an ideal scintillator that has high light output, fast decay property, low afterglow, and so forth. Recently, a large number of new scintillator systems has been reviewed, 1 resulting, in part, with the development of a new class of scintillator: the polycrystalline ceramic scintillator
