Unifying interfaces in X-Ray detection and imaging: advances in materials, heterogeneous integration, and algorithmic...

The performance of X-ray detection and imaging is shifting from material-centric limits toward system-level co-optimization. This article adopts interfaces as a unifying perspective to systematically review advances across the entire technology chain, encompassing sensitive materials, device architectures, and image reconstruction algorithms. We focus on four representative material systems: gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), perovskites, van der Waals (vdW) two-dimensional (2D) materials, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), providing an in-depth analysis of how microscopic interfacial mechanisms, such as interface trap density, band alignment, and ion migration, govern the detector sensitivity, response speed, and operational stability. At the array integration level, we compare five mainstream architectures: common-electrode, thin-film transistor (TFT)-integrated, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-integrated, passive matrix arrays, and pixelated arrays, emphasizing that their performance differences fundamentally arise from the compatibility and process-matching quality of critical interfaces among electrodes, semiconductors, dielectrics, and channels. We also examine algorithmic approaches that enhance imaging via hardware-software co-design. Building on this, we propose full-process interface-optimized heterogeneous integration by embedding interfacial compatibility into material design, enabling multiscale interface control during fabrication and aligning algorithms with hardware to achieve end-to-end co-optimization. This framework offers a scalable route to next-generation X-ray imaging with low dose, high resolution, and superior reliability.