Single crystals of undoped and 0.5at.%Ce³⁺-doped Tb_2.2Lu_0.8Al₅O₁₂ (LuTbAG) with dimensions up to Æ25´30 mm³ have been successfully grown by Czochralski pulling method. After the single-phase was confirmed using X-ray diffraction analysis, absorption coefficient of undoped LuTbAG was investigated. By using the results of Rietveld refinement and electron probe micro-analysis, the site occupation in undoped and Ce-doped LuTbAG crystals were indirectly revealed. The optical and scintillation characteristics of Ce³⁺-doped LuTbAG crystal were investigated in detail. In the transmittance spectra, Ce³⁺-doped crystals showed not only the absorption bands around 340 and 459 nm which are ascribed to the transition from 4f ground state to 5d excited state of Ce³⁺, but the typical 4f-4f absorption of Tb³⁺. Under the X-ray and UV excitation, strong emission peaks at 530 nm and 565 nm because of the Ce³⁺ 5d-4f transition and the line emission traces of Tb³⁺ featured 4f-4f transitions were both observed for Ce³⁺ doped crystal. The scintillation efficiency of LuTbAG:Ce crystal under X-ray excitation was about two times larger than that of BGO commercial crystal measured at the same conditions. Pulses X-ray luminescence measurements showed two exponential decay components of 1.8 ms and 161 ms. These initial results make LuTbAG:Ce crystal an attractive and promising scintillator for X-ray detection. In addition, the point defects in undoped and Ce-doped LuTbAG crystals were investigated by wavelength-resolved thermoluminescence technique.

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