Efficient Near-Infrared Emitting Halide Scintillators with Mitigating External Light Crosstalk for Portable X-Ray Imaging

Portable X-ray imaging technology plays a crucial role in enabling prompt diagnosis and treatment outdoors. Nevertheless, the persistent challenge of external optical signal crosstalk poses a significant bottleneck to its advancement. Herein, a solution utilizing near-infrared (NIR) light to effectively mitigate optical crosstalk is proposed, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of portable X-ray imaging even under ambient light. A series of rare earth ions doped Cs2AgxNa1-xInyBi1-yCl6 halide scintillators is reported, which possess bright broadband visible and NIR emissions. Taking Cs2Ag0.6Na0.4In0.95Bi0.05Cl6: 5%Tm as an example, it shows decent thermal quenching resistance, high PLQY up to 76.3%, and compelling light yield up to 33500 photons MeV-1. The highly efficient NIR emission is attributed to the energy transfer from the optimized host to lanthanide ions. A flexible scintillation film is prepared by mixing poly(dimethyl-siloxane) with Cs2Ag0.6Na0.4In0.95Bi0.05Cl6: 5%Tm powder, realizing a low X-ray detection limit of 55.2 nGyair/s and a high spatial resolution of 11.2 lp mm-1. Due to the efficient NIR emission, the scintillation film enables clear X-ray imaging under bright LED illumination with the simple addition of filters, avoiding the necessity of a complex imaging apparatus. This work sheds light on NIR emissive scintillator for rapid outdoor response and portable X-ray imaging. A series of Cs2AgxNa1-xInyBi1-yCl6: rare earth (RE: Yb, Nd, Er, Tm) single crystals are successfully synthesized. As a highly efficient scintillator, the optimized Cs2Ag0.6Na0.4In0.95Bi0.05Cl6: 5%Tm with high light yield shows excellent near-infrared emission, acceptable thermal quenching resistance, and good spatial resolution. The portable X-ray imaging of Cs2Ag0.6Na0.4In0.95Bi0.05Cl6: 5%Tm@PDMS is also demonstrated. image