Chemically vapor deposited oxide-based thick film scintillators

Radiation detection and imaging are used for nondestructive testing in the field of production technology, diagnosis and treatment in the medical field, and security activities at airports and nuclear facilities. To improve sensitivity and resolution in radiation detection and imaging, light scattering and self-absorption in scintillator media should be suppressed. Thick film scintillators with a thickness of several tens of micrometers have recently attracted attention; however, mechanical thinning of single crystal bulk or sintered polycrystalline transparent ceramics is costly. In this review, we discuss advantages of thick film scintillators for alpha-particle detection and X-ray imaging with numerical simulations and introduce a novel process that enables direct and rapid synthesis of thick film scintillators of tungsten- and lutetium-based practical oxide materials using a chemical vapor deposition method.