Spectroscopic properties of Ce-doped yttrium orthoaluminate （Ce：YA1O3 or Ce：YAP） crystals gown by temperature gradient technique （TGT） were investigated, and the effects of the growth conditions on the properties were analyzed. Methods of optical absorption （OA）, photoluminescence （PL）, photoluminescence decay （PLD）, X-my excited luminescence （XL） and cathodeluminescence （CL） were used in these investigations. The results showed that the absorption band peak at 202,394 and 532 nm originated from F and F^＋ color center induced by the weak reducing growth atmosphere, green emission band near 500 nm derived from Ce3^＋ -Ce^3＋ pairs and band at 650 - 850 nm from some unintentional impurity in crystals.
We report the luminescence properties and decay profiles of Ce：YAlO3, Mn：YAlO3, and Ce,Mn：YAlO3 crystals grown by Czochralski method. The spectroscopic properties show that both Mn2＋ ions and Mn4＋ ions exist in Mn：YA103 and Ce,Mn：YAlO3 crystals. The Mn2＋ ions have a broad emission band of 60 nm in Mn-doped YAlO3 crystal at 530 nm. The luminescence spectra also indicate that there is significant energy transfer between Ce3＋ and Mn4＋ in Ce,Mn：YA103 crystal. Because of the energy transfer, the first decay component in Ce,Mn：YAlO3 decreases from 24.5 to 10.8 ns, which is much faster than that of Ce：YAlO3.
