Progress and challenges of metal halide perovskites in X-ray detection and imaging

X-ray detection has been extensively applied in various fields including medical imaging, security detection, and industrial non-destructive testing. Recently, organic-metal halide perovskites (OMHP) are being under the spotlight of the academia in X-ray detection and imaging, owing to their outstanding photoelectric properties such as high photoluminescence quantum yield, large X-ray attenuation coefficient, high carrier mobility-lifetime (μτ) product and high defect-tolerant nature as well as low-cost raw materials and facile preparation technology. The reported perovskite X-ray detectors have displayed superb sensitivity and high-spatial-resolution X-ray imaging, promisingly challenging the traditional commercial X-ray detectors based on Si, α-Se or CsI:TI. Inspired by these exciting results, we summarize the recent progress of OMHP X-ray detectors. At first, we briefly introduce the working mechanism of indirect/direct X-ray detectors and the corresponding device structure, followed by a detailed discussion of the performance parameters of X-ray detectors. Then, we further demonstrate the achievements of OMHP in X-ray detection and imaging in terms of device type, perovskite composition, film species, fabrication technique, and optimized strategies, where the interplay between perovskite constituent/type, preparation technology and device performance are strongly emphasized. Finally, the challenges and prospects of OMHP-based X-ray detectors for the future development toward the commercialized application are proposed.