Discovery and Development of Crystalline Radiation Detection Materials

晶体无机材料是电离辐射探测技术的核心，广泛应用于安防、物理仪器和医学成像系统。为了提供电离辐射的能量分辨光谱，必须以大体积、无缺陷的晶体的形式生产具有独特化学和物理性能的探测器材料。因此，晶体辐射探测材料的发展在化学、物理和材料工程领域面临着复杂的、多方面的挑战。这项拟议的研究计划旨在发现和开发新型晶体辐射探测器。从发现的角度来看，目标1旨在开发低成本、环境友好、室温的半导体辐射探测器。对于这种类型的探测器，一个新兴的应用是下一代光子计数计算机断层扫描(PCCT)技术，它将能够在较低的X射线剂量下产生区分肿瘤和健康器官组织的图像。混合重金属卤化物钙钛矿的化学勘探将导致新的候选探测器的发现，其中包含无毒和富含稀土的元素。这一领域的成功将吸引工业伙伴的兴趣，并最终导致先进辐射探测技术的商业化。从材料开发的角度来看，目标2侧重于为天体粒子物理研究量身定做的重元素无机闪烁体材料的设计。针对特定稀有核过程中涉及的某些同位素提出了独特的挑战。我们的目标是进行靶向卤化物萤石的晶体生长和闪烁研究，包括Cs2VCl6，Cs2SnCl6和Cs2OsCl6，分别用于研究50V，124Sn和184Os的核过程。这些量身定做的闪烁体将为天体粒子物理学提供新的研究途径，并为安全粒子(即中子)探测提供新的仪器。该计划的广泛愿景是建立一个具有众所周知的性质的光学和光电子材料的多样化候选库，这将加速功能无机晶体材料的研究。该项目旨在培养无机化学、材料化学、晶体生长方法和物理性能测量技术方面的4名本科生、4名理科硕士和3名博士生，并向他们介绍半导体材料和器件的前沿研究。这种跨学科的经验将使HQP能够适应未来复杂的学术和工业研究环境。拟议研究计划的成功将扩大我们在无机晶体材料方面的知识，促进新型天文粒子物理仪器的发展，并通过新辐射探测器的商业化为加拿大带来经济利益。

Crystalline inorganic materials are the core of ionizing radiation detection technologies used extensively in security and defense applications, physics instrumentation and medical imaging systems. To provide energy-resolved spectra of ionizing radiation, detector materials, with unique chemical and physical properties, must be produced in the form of large volume, defect free crystals. As a result, the development of crystalline radiation detection materials encompasses complex, multi-faceted challenges in chemistry, physics and material engineering. This proposed research program aims to discover and develop novel crystalline radiation detectors. From a discovery perspective, objective 1 aims to develop low-cost, environment-friendly, room-temperature semiconductor radiation detectors. For this type of detector, one emerging application is the next generation photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) technology, which will be able to produce images differentiating a tumor from healthy organ tissue under lower X-ray dosage. Chemical exploration of the mixed heavy metal halide perovskites will lead to the discovery of new detector candidates containing non-toxic and earth abundant elements. Success in this area will attract interests from industrial partners and ultimately lead to the commercialization of advanced radiation detection technologies. From a material development approach, objective 2 focuses on the tailored design of heavy-element inorganic scintillator materials for astro-particle physics research. Unique challenges arise from targeting certain isotopes involved in specific rare nuclear processes. We aim to conduct crystal growth and scintillation study of targeted halide fluorites, including Cs2VCl6, Cs2SnCl6 and Cs2OsCl6, for the study of nuclear process in 50V, 124Sn and 184Os, respectively. These tailored scintillators will enable new research pathways in astro-particle physics and new instrumentation for security particle (i.e. neutron) detection. The broad vision of the program is to build a diverse candidate pool of optical and opto-electronic materials with well understood properties, which will accelerate the research in functional inorganic crystalline materials. The program aims to train 4 undergraduate, 4 M.Sc and 3 Ph.D. students in inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, crystal growth methods and physical properties measurement techniques, as well as introducing them to cutting-edge research in semiconductor materials and devices. This interdisciplinary experience will allow the HQP to be adaptive to the intricate academic and industrial research environments of the future. The success of the proposed research program will expand our knowledge in inorganic crystalline materials, facilitate novel astro-particle physics instrumentation, as well as bring economic benefit to Canada via commercialization of new radiation detectors.