Purcell enhancement of X-ray scintillation

Lahav, Neta; Kurman, Yaniv; Schuetz, Roman; Lifshits, Alon; Zaken, Segev; Beer, O.; Bekenstein, Yehonadav; Kaminer, Ido

doi:10.1364/cleo_si.2022.sm3k.7

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This effect increases with the difference in the refractive index of the two alternating layers. Mainly, the angular distribution of the emitted light can be shaped by enhancing the scintillator’s emission into detectable directions, simultaneously suppressing the emission in other directions, which otherwise will be lost due to TIR, and the spontaneous emission rate can be increased (Figure (B-ii)). − The simulation showed a potential 5-fold increase in detectable photons in the 1D PhC of LYSO compared to bulk LYSO, along with an improved emission rate in the former. The calculated enhancement of CTR by a factor of 2.4 in PhC shows the potential of photonic scintillators in fast time-of-flight detectors (Figure (B-iii)) .…”

Section: Enhancement Of Time Resolution By a Meta-scintillation Approachmentioning

confidence: 94%

Bright Innovations: Review of Next-Generation Advances in Scintillator Engineering

Singh,

Dosovitskiy,

Bekenstein

2024

ACS Nano

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This review focuses on modern scintillators, the heart of ionizing radiation detection with applications in medical diagnostics, homeland security, research, and other areas. The conventional method to improve their characteristics, such as light output and timing properties, consists of improving in material composition and doping, etc., which are intrinsic to the material. On the contrary, we review recent advancements in cutting-edge approaches to shape scintillator characteristics via photonic and metamaterial engineering, which are extrinsic and introduce controlled inhomogeneity in the scintillator’s surface or volume. The methods to be discussed include improved light out-coupling using photonic crystal (PhC) coating, dielectric architecture modification producing the Purcell effect, and meta-materials engineering based on energy sharing. These approaches help to break traditional bulk scintillators’ limitations, e.g., to deal with poor light extraction efficiency from the material due to a typically large refractive index mismatch or improve timing performance compared to bulk materials. In the Outlook section, modern physical phenomena are discussed and suggested as the basis for the next generations of scintillation-based detectors and technology, followed by a brief discussion on cost-effective fabrication techniques that could be scalable.

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Section: Enhancement Of Time Resolution By a Meta-scintillation Approachmentioning

confidence: 94%

Bright Innovations: Review of Next-Generation Advances in Scintillator Engineering

Singh,

Dosovitskiy,

Bekenstein

2024

ACS Nano

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“…Recently, a few studies have introduced the concept of nanophotonic scintillators , [ 15–19,27–28 ] showing how the Purcell effect could be used to enhance and shape spontaneous emission upon excitations by energetic particles. [ 18–19,28 ] In particular, nanophotonic scintillators can control the photonic local‐density‐of‐states (LDOS) to enhance the spontaneous emission rate in scintillation and in cathodoluminescence. [ 17–18,28 ] Our work develops nanophotonic scintillators for the context of scintillation imaging —showing how nanophotonics can improve the important characteristics of the imaging system.…”

Section: The Underlying Mechanism: Effective Spontaneous Emission Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, a few studies have introduced the concept of nanophotonic scintillators, [15][16][17][18][19][27][28] showing how the Purcell effect could be used to enhance and shape spontaneous emission upon excitations by energetic particles. [18][19]28] In particular, nanophotonic scintillators can control the photonic localdensity-of-states (LDOS) to enhance the spontaneous emission rate in scintillation and in cathodoluminescence. [17][18]28] Our work develops nanophotonic scintillators for the context of scintillation imaging-showing how nanophotonics can improve the important characteristics of the imaging system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2,[11][12][13] Photonic crystal coatings showed improved extraction efficiency and inhibited total internal reflection, [14][15][16] reaching nearly tenfold enhancement in scintillation emission. [17] Multilayered photonic crystals were proposed [18] and demonstrated [19] as means to enhance the scintillation rate. Additional solutions are tailored for specific applications, such as the addition of a reflective layer to modern image intensifiers tubes that improve the number of total outcoupled photons, at the expense of a deteriorated resolution.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Enhanced Imaging Using Inverse Design of Nanophotonic Scintillators

Shultzman

Segal

Kurman

et al. 2023

Advanced Optical Materials

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Converting ionizing radiation into visible light is essential in a wide range of fundamental and industrial applications, such as electromagnetic calorimeters in high‐energy particle detectors, electron detectors, image intensifiers, and X‐ray imaging. These different areas of technology all rely on scintillators or phosphors, i.e., materials that emit light upon bombardment by high‐energy particles. In all cases, the emission is through spontaneous emission. The fundamental nature of spontaneous emission poses limitations on all these technologies, imposing an intrinsic trade‐off between efficiency and resolution in all imaging applications: thicker phosphors are more efficient due to their greater stopping power, which however comes at the expense of image blurring due to light spread inside the thicker phosphors. Here, the concept of inverse‐designed nanophotonic scintillators is proposed, which can overcome the trade‐off between resolution and efficiency by reshaping the intrinsic spontaneous emission. To exemplify the concept, multilayer phosphor nanostructures are designed and these nanostructures are compared to state‐of‐the‐art phosphor screens in image intensifiers, showing a threefold resolution enhancement simultaneous with a threefold efficiency enhancement. The enabling concept is applying the ubiquitous Purcell effect for the first time in a new context—for improving image resolution. Looking forward, this approach directly applies to a wide range of technologies, including X‐ray imaging applications.

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“…In the latter case, PhCs are only used to manipulate the already-created scintillation emission, as opposed to the intrinsic emission properties. In a series of recent, exciting research breakthroughs, it was shown that structuring the scintillator material itself into a PhC can enhance the intrinsic emission process through the Purcell effect, resulting in improved scintillation efficiency. − However, the impact of externally added PhC structures on the intrinsic emission process has not been explored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Large-Area Scintillator Detection with Photonic Crystal Cavities

Bizarri

Birowosuto

et al. 2022

ACS Photonics

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Scintillators are materials that emit visible photons when bombarded by high-energy particles (X-ray, γ-ray, electrons, neutrinos, etc.) and are crucial for applications, including X-ray imaging and high-energy particle detection. Here, we show that one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PhC) cavities, added externally to scintillator materials, can be used to tailor the intrinsic emission spectrum of scintillators via the Purcell effect. The emission spectral peaks can be shifted, narrowed, or split, improving the overlap between the scintillator emission spectrum and the quantum efficiency (QE) spectrum of the photodetector. As a result, the overall photodetector signal can be enhanced by over 200%. The use of external PhC cavities especially benefits thick and large-area scintillators, which are needed to stop particles with ultrahigh energy, as in large-area neutrino detectors. Our findings should pave the way to greater versatility and efficiency in the design of scintillators for applications, including X-ray imaging and positron emission tomography.

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Purcell enhancement of X-ray scintillation

Cited by 5 publications

References 6 publications

Bright Innovations: Review of Next-Generation Advances in Scintillator Engineering

Bright Innovations: Review of Next-Generation Advances in Scintillator Engineering

Enhanced Imaging Using Inverse Design of Nanophotonic Scintillators

Enhancing Large-Area Scintillator Detection with Photonic Crystal Cavities

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