Crystal growth, scintillation mechanism, and radiation detection applications of Cs3Cu2I5:Tl single crystals

Materials for radiation detection are critically important and urgently demanded in diverse fields starting from fundamental scientific research to medical diagnostics, homeland security, and environmental monitoring. Low-dimensional halides (LDHs) exhibiting efficient self-trapped exciton (STE) emission with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) have recently shown a great potential as scintillators. Cs 3 Cu 2 I 5 based single crystals are one of the most promising LDHs for radiation detection applications. In this work, we study the growth of inch-sized $\mathrm{Cs}_{3} \mathrm{Cu}_{2} \mathrm{I}_{5}: \mathrm{Tl}$ single crystals, and address an overlooked issue of exciton-exciton interaction in Cs 3 Cu 2 I 5 host under ionizing radiation. Finally, we demonstrated a prototype of a highly sensitive all-solid-state radiation dose detector based on a highly efficient Cs 3 Cu 2 I 5 : Tl single crystal and a Si photodetector with a heterojunction structure, and a highly efficient nuclear battery device based on $\mathrm{Cs}_{3} \mathrm{Cu}_{2} \mathrm{I}_{5}: \mathrm{Tl}$ single crystal. Overall, we believe $\mathrm{Cs}_{3} \mathrm{Cu}_{2} \mathrm{I}_{5}: \mathrm{Tl}$ can serve as versatile scintillators covering a wide range of radiation energies for various applications