A new X-ray scintillator for digital radiography

Author

Nagarkar, V.V. ; Tipnis, S.V. ; Miller, S.R. ; Lempicki, A. ; Brecher, C. ; Szupryczynski, P. ; Lingertat, H.

Author_Institution

Radiat. Monitoring Devices Inc., Watertown, MA, USA

Volume

50

Issue

3

fYear

2003

fDate

6/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

297

Lastpage

300

Abstract

The authors report a new scintillator based on a transparent ceramic of Lu₂O₃:Eu. The material has an extremely high density of 9.4 g/cm³ and a light output comparable to CsI:Tl. Its narrow-band emission at 610 nm perfectly matches the spectral response of charge coupled devices (CCDs). To enhance the spatial and contrast resolution, the authors have developed a special process to pixelate the scintillator and prevent the spread of light within the scintillator volume. The imaging performance of this pixelated device was evaluated using a thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera. The new scintillator is expected to play a major role in digital radiographic systems when readout technologies capable of taking advantage of the transparency are developed further.

Keywords

CCD image sensors; X-ray detection; ceramics; position sensitive particle detectors; radiography; solid scintillation detectors; 610 nm; Lu₂O₃:Eu; X-ray scintillator; digital radiography; narrow-band emission; pixelation; spectral response; thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera; transparent ceramic; Ceramics; Charge coupled devices; Light scattering; Optical materials; Optical scattering; Particle scattering; Phosphors; Powders; Radiography; X-ray scattering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2003.812432

Filename

1208611