A large area transparent Tb-based lanthanide halide glass scintillator for high-resolution X-ray imaging

Abstract

Transparent glass scintillators are attractive for high-resolution X-ray imaging, yet lanthanide halide glasses remain scarcely explored, and the role of halide composition is largely unknown. Here, a series of large area (ETP)₃TbCl₃X₃ (ETP = Ph₃C₂H₅P and X = Cl, Br, and I) transparent lanthanide halide glasses are developed through a solvent-evaporation-assisted melt-quenching method. These materials exhibit a reversible glass–crystal transition, in which humidity induces a Tb-activated inclusion crystal that returns to a glassy state upon remelting and dehydration. Systematic halogen screening reveals that the Br-based glass achieves the best performance, combining >90% visible transparency, a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 65.59%, and a light yield of 6880 photons per MeV. Its scintillation screen achieves a spatial resolution of 30 line pair per mm and enables clear X-ray imaging of diverse complex objects. This work establishes a new class of organic–inorganic hybrid lanthanide halide glass scintillators and elucidates the underlying structure–property relationships that govern their performance.