GLASS CERAMICS FOR HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:949744

Johnson, Jackie A. ^[1]; Weber, Rick ^[2]; Kolesnikov, Alexander I ^[3]; SCHWEIZER, Stefan ^[4]

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1. University of Tennessee Space Institute
2. Materials Development, Inc., Evanston, IL
3. ORNL
4. Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics, 06120 Halle, Germany

Glass-ceramic materials are being developed for use in digital mammography systems. The materials are transparent x-ray storage phosphors, which are potentially less expensive than competing materials with superior performance. The materials do not suffer from loss of resolution and increased noise due to light scattering from grain boundaries, as do the currently available polycrystalline materials. The glass ceramics are based on Eu2+ -doped fluorochlorozirconate glasses. These can be heat treated to nucleate Eudoped barium chloride nanocrystals. The glass ceramic converts ionizing radiation (typically x-rays) into stable electronhole pairs that can be read by scanning a stimulating light beam across the glass to cause photostimulated luminescence (PSL) emission. Measurements on the materials are ongoing to elucidate structure-property relationships developed as a result of introducing rare-earth ions and modifying process conditions. Image quality measurements indicate that the current material competes with state-of-the-art x-ray imaging plates. The paper presents results on structure, properties and future directions of the materials described above.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 949744
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
BARIUM CHLORIDES
BIOMEDICAL RADIOGRAPHY
CERAMICS
DOPED MATERIALS
EUROPIUM
GLASS
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
LIGHT SCATTERING
LUMINESCENCE
PERFORMANCE
PHOSPHORS
RESOLUTION
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES