High Resolution X-Ray Imaging with Thin SrI2-Scintillator Screens

Abstract

ABSTRACTMuch has been reported on the excellent performance of the Eu2+ activated SrI2-scintillator in spectroscopic applications, like the high light yield (97 660 ph/MeV) and good energy resolution (2.7% FWHM at 662 keV). The exploitation of these properties for other application fields is limited by the hygroscopic nature of the SrI2. Single crystal scintillating screens exhibit high spatial resolution, this combined with the high density, high effective atomic number, and the high light yield of the SrI2 could be used for high resolution X-ray imaging.Some of the questions we tried to answer in this work are the following: owing to the excellent performance of the SrI2-scintillator in spectroscopic applications, how would it perform in X-ray imaging applications. X-ray images are described based on their (spatial) resolution and contrast, how would they look like when recorded using the SrI2-scintillator detector.First a packaging technique was developed that protected the hygroscopic screens during the measurements. Our results show a high resolution of the images obtained with thin SrI2-scintillator screens both in 2D radiography and 3D tomography measurements. With these results, we think that the SrI2-scinitillator is not only a candidate for spectroscopic applications, but also for high resolution X-ray imaging purposes.