Two-Dimensional Perovskite Single Crystals for High-Performance X-ray Imaging and Exploring MeV X-ray Detection

Abstract

Scintillation semiconductors play increasingly important medical diagnosis and industrial inspection roles. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) perovskites have been shown to be promising materials for medical X-ray imaging, but they are mostly used in low-energy (≤130 keV) regions. Direct detection of MeV X-rays, which ensure thorough penetration of the thick shell walls of containers, trucks, and aircraft, is also highly desired in practical industrial applications. Unfortunately, scintillation semiconductors for high-energy X-ray detection are currently scarce. Here, This paper reports a 2D (C4H9NH3)2PbBr4 single crystal with outstanding sensitivity and stability toward X-ray radiation that provides an ultra-wide detectable X-ray range of between 8.20 nGyair s−1 (50 keV) and 15.24 mGyair s−1 (9 MeV). The (C4H9NH3)2PbBr4 single-crystal detector with a vertical structure is used for high-performance X-ray imaging, delivering a good spatial resolution of 4.3 lp mm−1 in a plane-scan imaging system. Low ionic migration in the 2D perovskite enables the vertical device to be operated with hundreds of keV to MeV X-ray radiation at high bias voltages, leading to a sensitivity of 46.90 μC Gyair−1 cm−2 (−1.16 V μm−1) with 9 MeV X-ray radiation, demonstrating that 2D perovskites have enormous potential for high-energy industrial applications.