High-Performance Oxide Crystal BaTeW2O9 X-ray Detector with High Stability, Low Detection Limit, and Ultralow Dark Current Drift

Abstract

X-ray detection materials and devices have received widespread attention due to their irreplaceable role in the medical, industrial, and military fields. In this paper, BaTeW₂O₉ (BTW) crystal containing lone pairs of electrons with large atomic numbers and high density is reported as a new type of oxide crystal X-ray detection material. The anisotropic X-ray detection performance of the BTW single crystal (SC) is systematically studied. At 120 keV hard X-ray photon energy, the BTW SC X-ray detectors along the crystallographic a-, b-, and c-axes directions achieved high sensitivities of 371, 404, and 368 μC Gy_air^–1 cm^–2 respectively. More importantly, no dark current drift phenomenon was observed in the BTW SC X-ray detectors. The dark current drifts along the crystallographic a-, b-, and c-axes directions are as low as 7.81 × 10^–9, 8.61 × 10^–9, and 7.71 × 10^–9 nA cm^–1 s^–1 V^–1, respectively. In addition, the BTW SC X-ray detector has an ultralow detection limit of 21.9 nGy_air s^–1. Our research provides a new X-ray detection material with potential application value and a new material design strategy for the field of radiation detection.