Designing organic-inorganic hybrid semiconductors for curved x-ray detectors

There is a growing need for curved X-ray detectors for use in medical, industrial, and security applications for imaging of complex shapes. Fabrication of such curved X-ray detectors require materials that can sustain mechanical stresses. Organic-inorganic hybrid X-ray detectors consisting of high atomic number nanoparticles in an organic bulk heterojunction matrix has the potential to enable this. However organic semiconductors can crystallise depending on their molecular weight, thereby restricting deformation. In this study, we evaluate the influence of the molecular weight of organic semiconductors on the inherent strain in such hybrid detectors. We demonstrate that a careful selection of molecular weight and substrate thickness is a necessity to enable curved detectors. Based on optimised combinations, we show that such detectors can be curved to a very small radius of curvatures approaching 1 mm which ensures compatibility for applications in a multitude of fields.