Evaluation of Sintering Techniques for CsPbBr3 Polycrystalline X-ray Detectors

Metal-halide perovskites have been the subject of fast moving research for use in solid-state X-ray detection. A wide range of materials synthesis and manufacturing techniques have been investigated for these material systems including solution precipitation, solid-state reaction, thin film deposition, melt-based crystal growth, and sintering. To date, however, there lacks a fundamental comparison of these various manufacturing technologies and description of their relative benefits and drawbacks when applied to metal-halide perovskite radiation detectors. In this work, we aim to begin developing these comparisons by evaluating the consolidation of CsPbBr
3
polycrystalline devices via three sintering techniques, namely conventional sintering, cold sintering, and field assisted sintering. The resulting microstructures from each processing technique is evaluated with regards to density and grain size. These microstructural characteristics are linked to X-ray sensitivity performance. Initial results from conventionally sintered CsPbBr
3
demonstrate X-ray sensitivity of $151\;\mu {\text{C}}/{\text{G}}{{\text{y}}_{{\text{air}}}}^{ - 1}{\text{c}}{{\text{m}}^{ - 2}}$ under 20 V bias. Further characterization, optimization and performance evaluation will be conducted on each of the sintering methods, enabling robust comparisons to be made.