Effect of annealing on the X-ray detection properties of nano-sized polycrystalline lead oxide films

Polycrystalline lead oxide (PbO) film is an excellent candidate material for a direct conversion X-ray detector. However, the thick-bulky film tends to significantly reduce the charge collection efficiency for recombination process and the effective number of electron-hole pairs is lower than that of thin film, because it is difficult to fabricate high-dense and thick PbO films. In this paper, we first synthesized nano-sized PbO particles that could be used in a novel high-efficiency flat panel X-ray detector using a simple solution/combustion method. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, and field emission scanning electron microscopy were used to analyze the component ratio and morphology of the PbO particles as a function of annealing temperature. Then. 150-mu m-thick PbO films were deposited on glass substrates using a particle-in-binder method at room temperature. The influences of annealing before deposition on the X-ray detection characteristics of the PbO films were investigated in detail. The key parameters-the dark current. X-ray sensitivity, signal-to-noise ratio, and signal decay-were measured. The annealing conditions strongly affected the electrical properties of the PbO Wills. The X-ray sensitivity of films annealed in oxygen gas increased dramatically with increasing annealing temperatures up to 500 degrees C.