Evaporated Perovskite Thick Junctions for X-Ray Detection

X-ray detection is widely utilized in our daily life, such as in medical diagnosis, security checking, and environmental monitoring. However, most of the commercial X-ray detectors are based on inorganic semiconductors, e.g., Si, CdTe, and Ge, which require complex and costly fabrication processes. Metal halide perovskites have recently emerged as a set of promising candidates for ionizing radiation detection, owing to the high attenuation coefficient, long carrier lifetime, and excellent charge transport properties. Perovskite single crystals have been successfully implemented in X-ray detection, but the fragile single crystals limit the device fabrication and the integration with a read-out circuit. In addition, it is hard to reach inch-size single crystals for real application. Flexible devices based on perovskite films or composite films have also been reported, but either the thickness or charge transport properties are limited by the solution processes. In this work, we introduced thermal co-evaporation to deposit highly efficient formamidinium lead iodide perovskite films. Considering the trade-off between X-ray absorption and charge transport, we optimized the active layer thickness and achieved large-area and flexible X-ray detectors with state-of-the-art device performance, including extremely low dark current and noise, fast response, and high sensitivity of 142.1 mu C Gy(air)(-1) cm(-2).

Automated summary

X-ray detection is widely used in medical diagnosis, security checking, and environmental monitoring, but most commercial X-ray detectors are based on complex and costly fabrication processes using inorganic semiconductors. Metal halide perovskites have emerged as promising candidates for ionizing radiation detection, possessing high attenuation coefficient, long carrier lifetime, and excellent charge transport properties. Flexible and large-area X-ray detectors with state-of-the-art performance have been achieved through the optimization of active layer thickness and highly efficient thermal co-evaporation deposition of formamidinium lead iodide perovskite films.