Scintillation Films
RMD pioneered microcolumnar film technology to produce structured CsI:Tl scintillators based on research and development in the early nineties. Today RMD manufactures structured CsI:Tl scintillators deposited on various substrates ranging in size up to 50cm x 50cm and in thickness from tens of microns to over a millimeter. Our current capabilities include the production of custom scintillation films tailored to provide high spatial resolution, high detection efficiency, and enhanced brightness for various applications in digital X-ray imaging.
RMD has become a leader in applying this technology to numerous other inorganic scintillators, including binary and ternary compounds, oxide scintillators, and semiconductor scintillators designed for high-efficiency, high-resolution detection and imaging of X-rays and neutrons. RMD also has the expertise to grow materials that are highly hygroscopic. Unlike powder screens, microcolumnar scintillators channel the light towards the detector with minimal lateral spread, which greatly reduces the conventional need for the tradeoff between efficiency and spatial resolution.
In addition to growing in structured form, RMD tailors the performance of our scintillators through:
- Bandgap engineering to minimize afterglow through co-doping the scintillator
- Using alternative dopants to modify spectral emission
- Modifying growth techniques to achieve thick structures with enhanced brightness and transparency
- Tailoring scintillator host composition for enhanced response to a certain type of radiation and/or to alter its scintillation properties
- Using known scintillators with extraordinary performance to achieve ultra-fast response and/or high brightness
RMD also manufactures powdered scintillators. HSS-1 is our high-speed custom scintillator film designed for fast framing applications and can be produced in desired large sizes and the mass thickness. Other powdered scintillators including the Gd2O2S and LiF/ZnS, as well as custom compositions.
Lutetium Oxide (Lu2O3:Eu)
Lutetium Oxide scintillator was developed as a joint RMD/ALEM effort, first as a Transparent Optical Ceramic (TOC) and more recently as a deposited film. Lu2O3:Eu has excellent material properties including high density (9.5 g/cm3, highest among known scintillators) and high effective atomic number (Zeff=63). With a light yield of 48,000 photons/MeV and a peak emission in the red at 610 nm, it has excellent potential for X-ray imaging over a range from a few KeV to several MeV.
Lu2O3:Eu scintillation films can be deposited in either columnar format or amorphous crystalline format depending on the application requirements. Films up to 55 µm can be grown for increased stopping power, while the columns provide enhanced spatial resolution.