Scintillators comprising an organic photodetection shell
A coated scintillator particle, a scintillator particle coated with a semiconducting photoactive material, a method for producing such scintillator particles, an x-ray detector, a gamma-ray detector, and a UV detector using such coated scintillator particles, a method for producing such x-ray detector, gamma-ray detector, or UV detector, and the use of the coated scintillator particles for detecting high-energy radiation, e.g., radiation, gamma radiation and/or x-rays, are disclosed.
1. A coated scintillator particle, comprising:
a scintillator particle; and
a semiconducting photoactive material coating the scintillator particle;
wherein a thickness of the coating is less than 2.5 times the penetration depth of the radiation emitted by the scintillator particle.
2. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the scintillator particle has a diameter of 0.01 μm to 50 μm.
3. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the coating of the photoactive material has a thickness of 15 nm to 1500 nm.
4. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive material is at least one of an organic photoactive material or a perovskite semiconductor material.
5. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the photoactive material is a photoactive layer in the form of a bulk heterojunction.
6. A method for the production of coated scintillator particles, the method comprising:
dissolving at least one semiconducting photoactive material in a solution including at least one first solvent,
adding scintillator particles to the solution, wherein the scintillator particles include a semiconducting photoactive material coating the scintillator particle,
wherein a thickness of the coating is less than 2.5 times the penetration depth of the radiation emitted by the scintillator particle,
precipitating the coated scintillator particles by adding a further substance, and
removing the first solvent and the further substance.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the scintillator particles are not soluble in the first solvent.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the photoactive material comprises at least two organic compounds.
9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the scintillator particles are added to the solution while the solution is exposed to ultrasonic waves.
10. The method of claim 6 , comprising grinding the coated scintillator particles into a powder after the removal of the first solvent and the further substance.
11. A detector, comprising:
a plurality of coated scintillator particles;
a semiconducting photoactive material coating each of the plurality of scintillator particles,
wherein a thickness of the coating is less than 2.5 times the penetration depth of the radiation emitted by the scintillator particle,
wherein the detector is an X-ray detector, a gamma detector, or a UV detector.
12. The detector of claim 11 , comprising:
a substrate with a first electrical contact,
a layer comprising the coated scintillator particles, and
a second electrical contact.
13. A method for producing an X-ray detector, gamma detector or UV detector, the method comprising:
providing a powder comprising coated scintillator particles coated with a semiconducting photoactive material;
applying the powder to a substrate comprising a first electrical contact;
applying pressure to compact the powder;
applying a second electrical contact.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the step of applying pressure to compact the powder comprises heating the substrate before the application of pressure to compact the powder.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the application of pressure is performed using a stamp or a roller or by isostatic means.
16. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the scintillator particle has a diameter of 0.5 μm to 20 μm.
17. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the scintillator particle has a diameter of 1 μm to 10 μm.
18. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the coating of the photoactive material has a thickness of 100 nm to 1000 nm.
19. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the coating of the photoactive material has a thickness of 150 nm to 600 nm.
20. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
applying a first intermediate layer after applying the powder to the substrate, and
applying a second intermediate layer after applying pressure to compact the powder.
21. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the coating is less than 1.5 times the penetration depth of the radiation emitted by the scintillator particle.
22. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein a combination of scintillator particle and semiconducting photoactive material is chosen from the group consisting of: Gd2O2S:Tb or YAG:Ce combined with P3HT:PCBM, Lu2SiO5:Ce combined with F8BT, YGdO:Eu combined with PCPDTBT, Gd2O2S:Tb or YAG:Ce combined with (CH3NH3)PbI3 or (CH3NH3)BrI3, Lu2SiO5:Ce combined with (CH3NH3)PbI3 or (CH3NH3)BrI3, or YGdO:Eu combined with (CH3NH3)PbI3.
23. The coated scintillator particle of claim 1 , wherein the scintillator particles comprise Gd2O2S:Tb and the semiconducting photoactive material comprises P3HT:PCBM.