Low Afterglow Composite Scintillator for Real-Time X-Ray Imaging

Rare-earth fluoride nanocrystals have emerged as promising scintillator materials due to their excellent optical properties, environmental stability, and ease of fabrication into flexible screens. However, their practical application is often hindered by persistent afterglow, a phenomenon caused by deep trap states that capture and slowly release charge carriers after X-ray excitation, which leads to signal overlap and image artifacts in dynamic imaging scenarios. This study addresses this critical challenge by developing Ce3+/Tb3+ co-doped NaLuF4 nanoscintillators with suppressed afterglow. By introducing Ce3+ions as dopants into the Tb3+-activated NaLuF4 host, we successfully quenched the characteristic long afterglow without compromising the intrinsic radioluminescence efficiency of the Tb3+ centers. The optimized nanocrystals were subsequently incorporated into a poly (vinyl alcohol) matrix to fabricate transparent, high-loading composite scintillator films. The resulting films exhibit negligible afterglow, maintain high spatial resolution, and demonstrate excellent radiation stability. This work presents an effective strategy for suppressing afterglow in rare-earth fluoride scintillators through targeted ion doping, which paves the way for their application in real-time, high-quality X-ray imaging technologies such as medical diagnostics and industrial inspection.