High‐Quality Organic Doped Anthracene Crystal Wafer Scintillators for High‐Resolution X‐Ray Imaging

ABSTRACT Organic crystalline scintillators have attracted significant attention for their low processing temperatures, cost‐effectiveness, and tunable optical properties, making them strong candidates for advanced medical imaging. However, organic crystalline scintillators, constrained by their poor crystallinity, can only be employed after being ground into powder for forming scintillator screens, rather than being used directly as bulk crystals for scintillation imaging, which severely compromises their intrinsic optical performance and imaging resolution. In this study, pure and four doped anthracene crystals with dimensions of φ15 × 60 mm were successfully grown using an improved Bridgman thermal field technique. In particular, the crystalline quality of the resulting benz[a]anthracene‐doped and chrysene‐doped anthracene crystals was superior to that of the pure anthracene crystal. Transparent organic crystal wafer scintillator screens were subsequently fabricated by cutting and polishing technologies. Performance characterization demonstrated that benz[a]anthracene‐doped and chrysene‐doped anthracene crystals exhibited radioluminescence intensity threefold and fivefold that of the host, respectively. The chrysene‐doped anthracene crystal achieved a light yield of 50 976 photons MeV − 1 , a detection limit of 0.11 µGy s − 1 , and an ultra‐high spatial resolution of 20 lp mm − 1 . This work demonstrates molecular doping's ability to modulate properties, opening a new avenue for high‐resolution scintillator screens.