Serge Oktyabrsky, professor of Nanoscience at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has received $300,000 in funding from the United States Department of Energy to further develop scintillating detectors.
Upon the detection of fast, charged particles, or X-ray photons, the devices emit measurable light, resulting in the fastest high-yield scintillating materials reported so far. By being able to detect particles faster, they can be used for high-energy physics applications and can be essential for a range of critical medical imaging and nuclear security-focused applications.

The detectors naturally operate at low voltage, and are also more robust than their traditional silicon-based counterparts because they are more radiation tolerant.

“These more sensitive and faster detectors have been expected in high-energy physics experiments resolving fundamental mysteries of matter,” says a release from SUNY Poly. “For example, the detectors might dramatically enhance particle identification capabilities of high-energy accelerators studying the subatomic world.

“In medical imaging, patients might be able to receive lower doses of radiation because less radiation would be needed for detection as part of X-ray computed tomography, or CT scans, as well as positron emission tomography, or PET scans.”