X‑ray-Induced Pyroelectric Effect in a Perovskite Ferroelectric Drives Low Detection Limit Self-Powered Responses

• Published in: ACS central science Vol. 9; no. 12; pp. 2350 - 2357
• Main Authors: Ma, Yu, Li, Wenjing, Liu, Yi, Guo, Wuqian, Xu, Haojie, Han, Shiguo, Tang, Liwei, Fan, Qingshun, Luo, Junhua, Sun, Zhihua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 27-12-2023
• Subjects: Crystal structure; Electric fields; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; Ferroelectrics; Light effects; Nondestructive testing; Optoelectronic devices; Perovskites; Phase transitions; Photoelectricity; Pyroelectricity; Symmetry; Temperature; X-rays; Zinc telluride
• ISSN: 2374-7943; 2374-7951
• DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.3c01274

The light-induced pyroelectric effect (LPE) has shown a great promise in the application of optoelectronic devices, especially for self-powered detection and imaging. However, it is quite challenging and scarce to achieve LPE in the X-ray region. For the first time, we report X-ray LPE in a single-phase ferroelectric of (NPA)2(EA)2Pb3Br10 (1, NPA = neopentylamine, EA = ethylamine), adopting a two-dimensional trilayered perovskite motif, which has a large spontaneous polarization of ∼3.7 μC/cm2. Its ferroelectricity allows for significant LPE in the wavelength range of ordinary visible light. Strikingly, the X-ray LPE is observed in 1, which endows remarkable self-powered X-ray responses at 0 bias, including sensitivity up to 225 μC Gy–1 cm–2 and a low detection limit of ∼83.4 nGy s–1, being almost 66 times lower than the requirement for medical diagnostics (∼5.5 μGy s–1). This work not only develops a new mode for X-ray detection but also provides valuable insights for future photoelectric device application.