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Vapor-deposited lead-free all-inorganic perovskite films with ultralow dark current for sensitive and stable X-ray detection

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Abstract

Metal halide perovskites are becoming increasingly attractive for X-ray detection applications due to their distinctive optoelectronic properties. However, the practical use of lead-based organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites have been significantly impeded by their toxicity and instability. In this study, we have achieved successful growth lead-free bismuth-based all-inorganic perovskite Cs3Bi2Br9 films using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method for the first time. The CVD process has the advantage of circumventing the solubility limit of raw materials in conventional solution process, enabling thick film deposition for enhanced X-ray attenuation. Through meticulous adjustments to the molar ratio of the precursor materials, we have produced high-quality films characterized by a smooth surface and compact grains, ideal for minimizing leakage current. Consequently, the optimized devices exhibit an exceptionally low dark current density of 0.47 nA cm−2, meeting industrial standards for integration with thin-film transistor backplanes. Furthermore, these devices demonstrate an impressive sensitivity of 593 μC Gyair−1 cm−2, a low detection limit of 187.7 nGyair s−1, as well as excellent storage and operational stabilities, which hold great promise as an eco-friendly candidate for high-performance X-ray detection and imaging applications.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LR22F040003); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 62075191, No. 52003235, and No. 61721005); the Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering (No. 2022SZ-FR003); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (226-2022-00200); Zhejiang University K.P.Chao’s High Technology Development Foundation (2022RC008).

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Author notes

  1. Jiawen Li and Liqi Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Jiawen Li, Liqi Li, Lixiang Wang, Liting Tao, Deren Yang & Yanjun Fang

  2. Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan, 030024, People’s Republic of China

    Yanjun Fang

  3. Shangyu Institute of Semiconductor Materials, Shaoxing, 312366, People’s Republic of China

    Deren Yang & Yanjun Fang

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  1. Jiawen Li
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Contributions

JL investigates the progress of research fields, designs and conducts experiments, analyses experimental data, and finally writes and revises manuscripts; YF and LL is primarily responsible for writing review; LL, LW and LT assist in the analysis of the experiment data; DY and YF are responsible for project management and funding acquisition. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yanjun Fang.

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Li, J., Li, L., Wang, L. et al. Vapor-deposited lead-free all-inorganic perovskite films with ultralow dark current for sensitive and stable X-ray detection. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 488 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12279-z

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