High-Performance Copper-Doped Perovskite-Related Silver Halide X-ray Imaging Scintillator

Abstract

Scintillators are critical for high-energy radiation detection across a wide array of potential applications, from medical radiography and safety inspections all the way to space exploration. However, constrained by their current shortcomings, including high-temperature and complex fabrication as well as inherent brittleness and fragility among thick films and bulk crystals, traditional scintillators are finding it difficult to meet the rising demand for cost-effective, ecofriendly, and flexible X-ray detection. Here, we describe the development of high-performance and flexible X-ray scintillators based on films of Cu-doped Cs2AgI3 that exhibit ultrahigh X-ray sensitivity. The materials exhibit a high scintillation light yield of up to 82 900 photons/MeV and a low detection limit of 77.8 nGy/s, which is approximately 70 times lower than the dosage for a standard medical examination. Moreover, richly detailed X-ray images of biological tissue and electronic components with a high spatial resolution of 16.2 lp/mm were obtained using flexible, large-area, solution-processed scintillation screens.