Transparent Organic and Metal Halide Tandem Scintillators for High-Resolution Dual-Energy X-ray Imaging

Abstract

Dual-energy X-ray imaging (DEXI) is a cutting-edge technology that provides more detailed material-specific information than the traditional single-energy X-ray imaging strategy. Herein, we designed and fabricated a top-filter-bottom (TFB) sandwich structure scintillator for high-resolution DEXI within a single exposure. More specifically, the low- and high-energy X-ray photons were sequentially absorbed by the top and bottom scintillators and were efficiently converted into their corresponding emission colors. By discriminating between these different emission spectra of the transparent TFB sandwich structure scintillator, DEXI can provide not only unique X-ray energy information but also an exceptional resolution of approximately 18 lp/mm on stacked images that surpasses most of the reported single-layer organic- and metal halide-based scintillators. The conceptual demonstrations of decomposition and reconstruction in DEXI were also realized on several biological imaging objects. This breakthrough research paves the way for the development of scintillator architectures specifically designed for DEXI.