Nanophotonic Scintillators Enhance X-Ray Signal Efficiency by 10x
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 4, 2022 — Researchers at MIT have shown that scintillators, materials that emit light when bombarded with high-energy particles or x-rays, can be improved by at least tenfold, and potentially even a hundredfold, by modifying their surface to create nanoscale configurations such as arrays of wave-like ridges. The work has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of radiation needed to produce an image. Often employed in medical or dental x-ray systems, scintillators convert incoming x-ray