Template-Assisted Fabrication of Flexible Perovskite Scintillators for X-Ray Detection and Imaging

Metal halide perovskites have recently emerged as exceptional scintillator materials for ionizing radiation detection devices. Their chemical composition consists of elements with high atomic numbers, leading them to have a high attenuation coefficient. Their high attenuation coefficient, in combination with their excellent optoelectronic properties, versatile chemical tunability, and facile and low-cost fabrication processes, makes them the ideal scintillator material. However, existing perovskite-based scintillators suffer from poor material stability, especially in humid atmospheres. Moreover, current perovskite films have morphologies that have been optimized for photovoltaics, which results in the relatively long charge carrier lifetimes, a property that is detrimental for fast scintillation. Furthermore, existing reports of perovskite-based scintillators have shown limited spatial resolution due to poor light transmittance that arises from light scattering from large aggregates of perovskite grains. To address these issues, this work introduces a template-assisted in situ polymerization-based process to prepare perovskite/polymer composite scintillators that simultaneously reduces afterglow effects, improves perovskite stability, and is industrially scalable. The optimized perovskite scintillators are then incorporated into X-ray detection devices to investigate detection performance and device stability. Compared with existing commercial scintillators, the perovskite scintillators show superior detection performance metrics for imaging, indicating the great potential of perovskites for next-generation, large-area, and flexible scintillation screens.