Hybrid Eu(II)-bromide scintillators with efficient 5d-4f bandgap transition for X-ray imaging

Luminescent metal halides are attracting growing attention as scintillators for X-ray imaging in safety inspection, medical diagnosis, etc. Here we present brand-new hybrid Eu(II)-bromide scintillators, 1D type [Et 4 N]EuBr 3 ·MeOH and 0D type [Me 4 N] 6 Eu 5 Br 16 ·MeOH, with spin-allowed 5 d -4 f bandgap transition emission toward simplified carrier transport during scintillation process. The 1D/0D structures with edge/face -sharing [EuBr 6 ] 4− octahedra further contribute to lowing bandgaps and enhancing quantum confinement effect, enabling efficient scintillation performance (light yield ~73100 ± 800 Ph MeV −1 , detect limit ~18.6 nGy s −1 , X-ray afterglow ~ 1% @ 9.6 μs). We demonstrate the X-ray imaging with 27.3 lp mm −1 resolution by embedding Eu(II)-based scintillators into AAO film. Our results create the new family of low-dimensional rare-earth-based halides for scintillation and related optoelectronic applications.