Single-Crystalline Perovskite Nanowire Arrays for Stable X-ray Scintillators with Micrometer Spatial Resolution

Zhaojun Zhang; Hanna Dierks; Nils Lamers; Chen Sun; Klára Nováková; Crispin Hetherington; Ivan G Scheblykin; Jesper Wallentin

doi:10.1021/acsanm.1c03575

Single-Crystalline Perovskite Nanowire Arrays for Stable X-ray Scintillators with Micrometer Spatial Resolution

ACS Appl Nano Mater. 2022 Jan 28;5(1):881-889. doi: 10.1021/acsanm.1c03575. Epub 2021 Dec 18.

Authors

Zhaojun Zhang¹, Hanna Dierks¹, Nils Lamers¹, Chen Sun², Klára Nováková², Crispin Hetherington³, Ivan G Scheblykin², Jesper Wallentin¹

Affiliations

¹ Synchrotron Radiation Research and NanoLund, Department of Physics, Lund University, Box 124, Lund 22100, Sweden.
² Chemical Physics and NanoLund, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Box 124, Lund 22100, Sweden.
³ Centre for Analysis and Synthesis and NanoLund, Department of Chemistry, Lund University, Box 124, Lund 22100, Sweden.

Abstract

X-ray scintillation detectors based on metal halide perovskites have shown excellent light yield, but they mostly target applications with spatial resolution at the tens of micrometers level. Here, we use a one-step solution method to grow arrays of 15-μm-long single-crystalline CsPbBr₃ nanowires (NWs) in an AAO (anodized aluminum oxide) membrane template, with nanowire diameters ranging from 30 to 360 nm. The CsPbBr₃ nanowires in AAO (CsPbBr₃ NW/AAO) show increasing X-ray scintillation efficiency with decreasing nanowire diameter, with a maximum photon yield of ∼5 300 ph/MeV at 30 nm diameter. The CsPbBr₃ NW/AAO composites also display high radiation resistance, with a scintillation-intensity decrease of only ∼20-30% after 24 h of X-ray exposure (integrated dose 162 Gy_air) and almost no change after ambient storage for 2 months. X-ray images can distinguish line pairs with a spacing of 2 μm for all nanowire diameters, while slanted edge measurements show a spatial resolution of ∼160 lp/mm at modulation transfer function (MTF) = 0.1. The combination of high spatial resolution, radiation stability, and easy fabrication makes these CsPbBr₃ NW/AAO scintillators a promising candidate for high-resolution X-ray imaging applications.