Development of Optical-Guiding Scintillators with Ultrafine (~12 μm) Uniform Scintillator Cores for High-Resolution...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optical Engineering
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Conventional optical-guiding crystal scintillators (OCSs) face challenges like iodine volatilization and structural defects, limiting their use in high-resolution X-ray imaging.
• Existing fabrication methods struggle with uniformity and reliability due to material limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop ultrafine-core OCSs with enhanced structural uniformity and reliability for high-resolution X-ray imaging.
• To overcome the limitations of conventional OCS fabrication methods.

Main Methods:

• A novel hollow-fiber-based fabrication strategy was employed.
• Hollow glass fibers were bundled, drawn, and then infiltrated with a Tl-doped Cs3Cu2I5 (Tl: CCI) melt.
• Radioluminescence and X-ray imaging experiments were conducted to evaluate performance.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated densely packed bundled OCSs with uniform ultrafine cores (10-12 μm).
• The new method suppressed volatilization-induced defects, improving structural integrity.
• X-ray imaging demonstrated superior spatial resolution and contrast compared to commercial CsI:Tl scintillators, with a CTF of 30.7% at 10 lp/mm.

Conclusions:

• The hollow-fiber architecture offers a scalable route to ultrafine-core scintillators.
• Tl: CCI-filled OCSs show significant potential for next-generation high-resolution X-ray imaging systems.