Estimating the radiative activation characteristics of a Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce scintillator in low earth orbit

Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce (GAGG:Ce) is a recently developed inorganic scintillator. With excellent characteristics of high density and high light yield, GAGG:Ce could be potentially applied as a gamma-ray detector for astrophysical experiments on satellite missions. We report the characteristics of GAGG:Ce for radiation dose by irradiating 150 MeV protons up to 100 Gy, as compared with GSO:Ce, CsI:Tl and GYSO:Ce scintillators. We investigated the radio-activated intrinsic background count rates due to spallation within an energy range of 30–400 keV for each scintillator, and then estimated the background count rates for a satellite experiment conducted in low earth orbit. The results showed that the background count rate of GAGG:Ce was the lowest per day or in a longer timescale than the other scintillators