Study of a new class of picosecond X-ray scintillators: organic/inorganic perovskite

For high resolution X-ray imaging very thin scintillating layers are requested. Non powder based, homogeneous, sub-micrometer thick scintillating screen fabrication is difficult task. Scintillator deposition by spin coating could help to overcome the above mentioned difficulties. Easily soluble, (RNH₃)₂MX₄ type compounds, where R is the alkyl chain, M is a divalent metal cation and the ligand X is halogen, after solvent evaporation, will produce a self organized layered perovskite structure. In these layered organic-inorganic structures the inorganic octahedral coordinated inorganic MX₄ ^2- layers are sandwiched between two layers composed from R-NH₃ ⁺. This self organized two dimensional structure can be characterized by a multiple quantum well structure with interesting physical properties. In the past it was proven that upon 2 MeV proton irradiation, radiation induced emission can be obtained. In our work we synthesized the (n-C₆H₁₃NH₃)₂MX₄ compound and found that visible light emission could be obtained by X-ray irradiation. In principle the light emission from these compounds due to the excitonic emission is extremely fast, falls in the picosecond range. There are numerous potential applications for this new type of scintillators.