Islamabad-Perovskites are materials made up of organic compounds bound to a metal. Propelled into the forefront of materials’ research because of their structure and properties, perovskites are earmarked for a wide range of applications, including in solar cells, LED lights, lasers, and photodetectors.
That last application, photo — or light — detection, is of particular interest to scientists at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences who have developed a perovskite that can detect gamma rays.
Led by the labs of Professors Lászlo Forró and Andreas Pautz, the researchers have published their work in Advanced Science. “This photovoltaic perovskite crystal, grown in this kilogram size, is a game changer,” says Forró. “You can slice it into wafers, like silicon, for optoelectronic applications, and, in this paper, we demonstrate its utility in gamma-ray detection.” Gamma-rays are a kind of penetrating electromagnetic radiation that is produced from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei, e.g., in nuclear or even supernovae explosions.
Gamma-rays are on the shortest end of the electromagnetic spectrum, which means that they have the highest frequency and the highest energy.
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