A new lutetia-based ceramic scintillator for X-ray imaging

We report a new scintillator based on a transparent ceramic of Lu2O3:Eu. The material has an extremely high density of 9.4 g/cm3, a light output comparable to CsI:Tl, and a narrow band emission at 610 nm that falls close to the maximum of the response curve of CCDs. Pixelation of the scintillator to prevent lateral spread of light enhances the spatial and contrast resolution, providing imaging performance that equals or surpasses all other currently known scintillators. Upon further development of readout technologies to take full advantage of its transparency, the new scintillator should play a major role in digital radiographic systems.