Characterization of the new co-doped CsI microcolumnar films for high-speed radiographic imaging

Despite its obvious advantages, well known CsI:Tl scintillator has two characteristic properties that undermine its use in clinical and high speed imaging: the presence of an afterglow component in its scintillation decay, and a hysteresis effect that causes drift in the scintillation yield after exposure to high radiation doses. We have previously reported that the addition of a second dopant, Sm2+, to the CsI:Tl crystals, significantly suppresses both afterglow and hysteresis. Here we report on the fabrication and characterization of the Sm co-doped CsI:Tl microcolumnar films to examine if these properties are preserved in films as well. Our preliminary data suggests that the Sm co-doped CsI:Tl films significantly improve temporal response relative to their CsI:Tl counterpart, and that the newly developed films demonstrate excellent spatial resolution. Various aspects of these effects and their consequences for imaging performance are discussed in this paper.