Measurement of persistence in YAG:Ce3+ scintillator with pulsed synchrotron X-rays

The decay time of YAG:Ce(3+) phosphor was studied using a CMOS camera with a frame rate of 1302000 s(-1) and pulsed X-rays from SPring-8. A high-resolution X-ray detector with YAG:Ce(3+) was used with the camera to view the focused beam from the helical undulator. Mismatch between the ring circulation time and the frame time gave rise to a periodic variation of beam intensity in successive frames. Analysis of data obtained with two bunch modes showed that the decay time of YAG:Ce(3+) was 60 ns. The variation of the beam positions in isolated bunches was small enough to be neglected in experiments using the focused beam. The results also show the possibility of an X-ray diffraction study at high time and space resolution.