Semiconductor scintillator based on photon recycling

Direct-bandgap semiconductor with high quantum radiative efficiency can operate as a scintillator despite being ‘‘opaque’’ to its own luminescence. An interband absorption does not finish off the luminescence but merely creates a new minority carrier, which in turn recombines in a predominately radiative fashion. To take full advantage of this ‘‘photon recycling’’ effect, optically-tight integration of photoreceivers on both sides of the semiconductor scintillator wafer is desirable. & 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.