Rubidium Doping to Enhance Carrier Transport in CsPbBr₃ Single Crystals for High-Performance X-Ray Detection

Abstract

The direct band gap CsPbBr₃ perovskite is regarded as a promising alternative for low-cost and high-performance X-ray radiation detectors. Despite the fact that CsPbBr₃ nanocrystals have been shown to be good scintillators in the indirect conversion mode, the direct X-ray conversion with CsPbBr₃ single crystals is expected to yield higher spatial resolution. Here, rubidium (Rb) doping is demonstrated to be an efficient approach to improve carrier transport and X-ray detection performance in the direct-conversion X-ray detectors based on Cs_(1-<i>x</i>)Rb<i>_x</i>PbBr₃ single crystals. Electrical properties' characterizations as combined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements have revealed that Rb doping in Cs_(1-<i>x</i>)Rb<i>_x</i>PbBr₃ single crystals can enhance the atomic interaction and orbital coupling between Pb and Br atoms, leading to an enhancement of carrier transport and X-ray detection performance. X-ray detectors based on a small amount (0.037%) of Rb-doped Cs_(1-<i>x</i>)Rb<i>_x</i>PbBr₃ single crystals exhibited a high X-ray sensitivity of 8097 μC Gy_air^-1 cm^-2. This work offers a feasible strategy to improve the X-ray detection performance by chemical doping in all-inorganic perovskite X-ray detectors.