Lead halide perovskite scintillators have recently received extensive research attention owing to their short fluorescence lifetimes, low detection limits, and ease of fabrication compared to traditional scintillators. The nontoxic cerium-doped lead-free perovskites with intrinsically efficient and short lifetime d–f transitions are a prospective replacement for the toxic Pb2+. Here, we demonstrated Ce-doped cesium lanthanide chloride perovskites (Cs3LnCl6, Ln = Gd, Y, Lu) synthesized through a facile solution method for the first time. These perovskites exhibit blue-violet emission, which arises from Ce 5d → 4f transitions. Among three types of Cs3LnCl6 perovskites, Ce:Cs3LuCl6 exhibited high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 82% and a short excited-state lifetime of approximately 34 ns. When utilized as X-ray scintillators, Ce:Cs3LuCl6 crystals display a high light yield of 8120 photons per MeV and a low detection limit of 36.8 nGy air s−1. Importantly, the figure of merit (FoM), representing the ratio of light yield to decay time, reaches 239, which is the highest reported value for lead-free perovskite scintillators up to now. Additionally, the fabrication of perovskite/PMMA films was undertaken for practical demonstrations in X-ray imaging, resulting in the attainment of a resolution of up to 8.38 lp/mm. We anticipate that this work will inspire the utilization of Ce-doped Cs3LnCl6 perovskites in ultrafast scintillation applications such as high-energy physics, nuclear reaction monitoring, and dynamic X-ray imaging.
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