Material change for X-ray detectors

The X-ray sensitivity of radiology instruments is limited by the materials used in their detectors. A material from the perovskite family of semiconductors could allow lower doses of X-rays to be used for medical imaging. See Letter p.87 Organometallic perovskite materials have received considerable attention in recent years owing to their high sensitivity to light, which has been exploited in a range of photoconductive and photovoltaic devices. X-ray detection is another particularly promising application for these materials because medical X-ray imaging machines that operate under lower doses would reduce radiation exposure. In Taek Han and colleagues demonstrate a flat-panel X-ray detector made by solution processing polycrystalline perovskites on a conventional thin-film transistor pixelated backplane, with sensitivities that are at least an order of magnitude higher than those of current commercial detectors. The approach could make low-dose X-ray imaging widely available and may also be extended to other photoconductive devices.