Metal Halide Perovskite-based scintillators for X-ray detection

X-ray scintillators are a key technology in society with far reaching applications from security scanning to medical imaging such as radiography, computer tomography (CT) scans and Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Each year, demand for medical imaging increases with CT scans usage rising approximately 4.5% each year. Furthermore, the NHS has set targets of 55000 people to survive 5 years or more following cancer diagnosis by 2028, a goal necessitating improvement in availability and affordability of X-ray devices. Increased demand further necessitates the development of devices capable of delivering lower dosages of radiation to patients while increasing image resolution. Although current commercial scintillator materials for medical imaging provide adequate results, they possess inherent limitations such as limited radioluminescence efficiency, slow time response and lack of tunability to a range of X-ray energies. This results in suboptimal dose exposures for patients and limited image resolution whilst relying on expensive, high energy and high temperature fabrication methods.

Our aim is to develop sensitive X-ray scintillator materials using Metal Halide Perovskite (MHP) composites which will give rise to a new generation of X-ray devices that could revolutionise low-dose and high throughput medical and security imaging. The proposed materials will have higher sensitivity than current commercial X-ray scintillators giving rise to higher resolution images with potential for lower dosage and cost-effective devices. The materials will be synthesised using solution processing techniques resulting in greater affordability, easing the economic burden of the rising demand for medical imaging, whilst increasing access to critical healthcare and security imaging for developing nations. We will develop synthetic methods to produce MHP composite materials in highly dense pellets in which we will address at once the two major challenges existing nowadays in MHPs for high energy radiation detection: i) instability and ii) low optical quality. Simultaneously, we will couple our materials with commercial photodetectors to deliver and test, towards the end of the project, a device for medical imaging under real operando conditions. Our strategy will be supported by advanced optical simulations, and advanced optoelectronic and structural characterisation. The aims and objectives of this project aligns with several of the EPSRC strategies, including 'novel imaging technologies' of the Healthcare Technologies area and the 'Healthy nation' section of the EPSRC delivery Plan. This highly interdisciplinary project fits within the interests of novel materials, device engineering and medical imaging and will contribute to achieving their outcomes.

The primary outputs from the CDT will be cohorts of highly qualified, interdisciplinary postgraduates who are experts in a wide range of sensing activities. They will benefit from a world leading training experience that recognises sensor research as an academic discipline in its own right. The students will be taught in all aspects of Sensor Technologies, ranging from the physical and chemical principles of sensing, to sensor design, data capture and processing, all the way to applications and opportunities for commercialisation, with a strong focus in entrepreneurship, technology translation and responsible leadership. Students will learn in extensive team and cohort engaging activities, and have access to cutting-edge expertise and infrastructure. 90 academics from 15 different departments participate in the programme and more than 40 industrial partners are actively involved in delivering research and business leadership training, offering perspectives for impact and translation and opportunities for internships and secondments. End users associated with the CDT will benefit from the availability of outstanding, highly qualified and motivated PhD students, access to shared infrastructure, and a huge range of academic and industrial contacts.

Immediate beneficiaries of our CDT will be our core industrial consortium partners (MedImmune, Alphasense, Fluidic Analytics, ioLight, NokiaBell, Cambridge Display Technologies, Teraview, Zimmer and Peacock, Panaxium, Silicon Microgravity, etc., see various LoS) who incorporate our cross-leverage funding model into their corporate research strategies. Small companies and start-ups particularly benefit from the flexibility of the partnerships we can offer. We will engage through weekly industry seminars and monthly Sensor Cafés, where SME employees can interact directly with the CDT students and PIs, provide training in topical areas, and, in turn, gain themselves access to CDT infrastructure and training. Ideas can be rapidly tested through industrially focused miniprojects and promising leads developed into funded PhD programmes, for which leveraged funding is available through the CDT.

Government departments and large research initiatives are formally connected to the CDT, including the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA); the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC); the Centre for Global Equality (CGE); the National Physics Laboratory (NPL); the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who all push our CDT to generate impacts that are in the public interest and relevant for a healthy and sustainable future society. With their input, we will tackle projects on assisted living technologies for the ageing population, diagnostics of environmental toxins in the developing world, and sensor technologies that help replace the use of animals in research. Developing countries will benefit through our emphasis on open technologies / open innovation and our exploration of responsible, ethical, and transparent business models. In the UK, our CDT will engage directly with the public sector and national policy makers and regulators (DEFRA, and the National Health Service - NHS) and, with their input, students are trained on impact and technology translation, ethics, and regulatory frameworks.