Chiral Terbium Halide for Narrow-Band X‑ray Scintillation

Achieving
narrow-band radioluminescence remains challenging
despite
its critical importance in display technologies. Here, we construct
the novel chiral terbium(III)-based hybrid metal halides (R/S-3BrMBA)3TbCl6 (R/S-BMTC) and systematically investigate their scintillation properties.
Benefiting from the heavy atom-enhanced X-ray absorption, negligible
self-absorption, and unique 4f-4f transitions of Tb3+, R-BMTC exhibits excellent X-ray scintillation activity with strong radioluminescence
comparable to that of the commercial Bi4Ge3O12. Most importantly, R-BMTC exhibits
one of the narrowest radioluminescences (∼9 nm) among the reported
hybrid metal halides. Additionally, it also exhibit efficient green
circularly polarized luminescence with high quantum yield (45.9%)
and dissymmetry factor (4.99 × 10–3), which
are essential for suppressing the optical crosstalk and enhancing
the X-ray imaging quality at the boundary. Overall, our work demonstrates
an efficient approach for developing the narrow-band X-ray scintillator,
thereby advancing the progress of chiral rare-earth halides toward
optoelectronic applications.