Energy Transfer Assisted Fast X-ray Detection in Direct/Indirect Hybrid Perovskite Wafer

Metal halide perovskite scintillators encounter unprecedented opportunities in indirect ionizing radiation detection due to their high quantum yields. However, the long scintillation lifetime of microseconds upon irradiation, known as the afterglow phenomenon, obviously limits their fast development. Here, a new type of hybrid X-ray detector wafer combining direct methylamine lead iodide (MAPbI₃ ) semiconductor and indirect zero-dimensional cesium copper iodide (Cs₃ Cu₂ I₅ ) scintillator through low-cost fast tableting processes is reported. Due to the fast energy transfer from Cs₃ Cu₂ I₅ to MAPbI₃ , the device response time to X-rays is dramatically reduced by nearly 30 times to 36.6 ns, which enables fast X-ray detection capability by a large area detector arrays within 1 s. Moreover, Cs₃ Cu₂ I₅ exists at the grain boundaries of MAPbI₃ crystals, and blocks the paths of mobile ions of perovskite, leading to the lowest detectable dose rate of hybrid X-ray detector is thus reduced by 1.5 times compared with control MAPbI₃ direct-type semiconductor, and 10 times compared with the Cs₃ Cu₂ I₅ indirect-type scintillator. The direct/indirect hybrid wafer also exhibits improved operation stability at ambient conditions without any encapsulation. This new kind of hybrid X-ray detectors provides strong competitiveness by combining the advantages of both direct perovskite semiconductors and indirect perovskite scintillators for next-generation products.