Development of an X-ray imaging detector to resolve 200 nm line-and-space patterns by using transparent ceramics layers bonded by solid-state diffusion.

A high-resolution lens-coupled X-ray imaging detector equipped with a thin-layer transparent ceramics scintillator has been developed. The scintillator consists of a 5 μm thick Ce-doped LuAlO layer (LuAG:Ce) bonded onto the support substrate of the non-doped LuAG ceramics by using a solid-state diffusion technique. Secondary electron microscopy of the bonded interface indicated that the crystal grains were densely packed without any pores in the optical wavelength scale, indicating a quasi-uniform refractive index across the interface.