A New High Sensitivity High Resolution Sensor for X-Ray CT

In field hospitals in/near theatres of operations, and even in smaller mobile medical units, X-ray CT can provide crucial information to first responding providers about soldiers"injuries and allow for quick yet comprehensive blunt and penetrating trauma assessments, which can expedite diagnosis, triage, and provision of the most appropriate essential medical services. Unfortunately, today"s experience is that the performance of such scanners is sub-optimal, due to the low X-ray absorption efficiency of today"s scin-tillation sensors, reduced signal-to-noise ratios due to their limited light emission efficiency, and limited spatial resolution due to demanding pixelation needs, resulting in images with reduced resolution and re-duced soft tissue contrast. To address these issues, we propose to develop a novel scintillator for next-generation computed tomography (CT) systems, and demonstrate its efficacy for high-sensitivity, high-resolution X-ray imaging through its integration into existing imaging detectors. The material we propose is recently discovered, and offers exceptionally high scintillation efficiency, high density, high effective atomic number, and fast decay with no afterglow. We will grow this material in conventional and specialized formats designed to simultaneously achieve high X-ray absorption and high spatial resolution, and demonstrate its efficacy for demanding military and civilian CT application needs