STED properties of Ce, Tb, and Eu doped inorganic scintillators

Scintillator-based X-ray imaging is a powerful technique for noninvasive realspace microscopic structural investigation such as synchrotron-based computed tomography. The resolution of an optical image formed by scintillation emission is fundamentally diffraction limited. To overcome this limit, stimulated scintillation emission depletion (SSED) X-ray imaging, based on stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, has been recently developed. This technique imposes new requirements on the scintillator material: efficient de-excitation by the STED-laser and negligible STED-laser excited luminescence. In this work, luminescence depletion was measured in several commonly-used Ce, Tb, and Eu doped scintillators using various STED lasers. The depletion of Tb and Eu via 4f-4f transitions was more efficient (Ps = 8...19 mW) than Ce depletion via 5d-4f transitions (Ps = 43...45 mW). 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