CsPbBr3 perovskite: A room temperature hard radiation detector

Highly sensitive hard radiation detectors operating at room temperature are greatly desired for national security, non-proliferation, and medical applications. The semiconductor CsPbBr₃ with wide band gap (2.25 eV) and high density (4.85 g/cm³) has shown high spectral resolution of γ-rays at room temperature. In this talk, we will overview the research progress on the bulk CsPbBr₃ crystals studied so far and our recent accomplishments achieved by a modified device design and a substantially improved quality of single crystals, which identified CsPbBr₃ as an outstanding candidate for γ-ray detector applications. The hole lifetime in CsPbBr₃ single crystals exceeds 25 μs. We will present effective procedures to produce CsPbBr₃ and the growth of single crystals with enhanced quality and larger size using the Bridgman method. These crystals show significantly reduced levels of twinning but can present remarkable energy resolving capability under both X and γ rays, particularly in achieving 3.9% (4.8 keV, FWHM) energy resolution for 122 keV ⁵⁷Co γ-ray and <2% for 662 keV ¹³⁷Cs γ-ray.