Flexible, High Scintillation Yield Cu3Cu2I5 Film Made of Ball-Milled Powder for High Spatial Resolution X-Ray Imaging

Cu halide materials with low electronic dimension show great scintillation properties with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and large Stokes shift, which can result in reabsorption-free scintillators. However, there is still a need for a large-scalable method to fabricate large amount of scintillation powder and large-size scintillation films. In this regard, a high scintillation yield Cu3Cu2I5-PDMS flexible film utilizing ball-milled Cu3Cu2I5 powder is developed. The ball-milled Cu3Cu2I5 powder shows a high PLQY of 74.5%, narrow emission peak of 80 nm and good ambient stability, demonstrating the potential of ball-milling method for large-scale scintillator production. Furthermore, the Cu3Cu2I5-PDMS film shows even high PLQY exceeding 90%, which may be ascribed to the passivation effect of PDMS resulting in a little longer carrier lifetime. The flexible Cu3Cu2I5-PDMS film can further deliver high spatial resolution of 6.8 lp mm(-1)@0.2 MTF in X-ray imaging and good stability under steady X-ray illumination. This work demonstrates that the ball-milling method could be an effective approach for large-scale fabrication of low electronic dimensional scintillation materials.

Automated summary

Cu3Cu2I5 powder prepared by ball milling exhibits high photoluminescence quantum yield and narrow emission peak, making it suitable for fabricating high scintillation yield Cu3Cu2I5-PDMS flexible film. The film shows extended carrier lifetime and high spatial resolution, demonstrating good stability in X-ray imaging.