ZnO nanowires in polycarbonate membrane as a high resolution X-ray detector (a Geant4 simulation)

The capability of polycarbonate cladded ZnO nanowires as scintillating optical fibers, in the presence of the 10 keV X-ray is simulated using the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation code. The simulated results show that using millions of scintillating fibers in a 1 mm2 area, which are packed together in a polycarbonate membrane, have additional light guiding role that reduces the scattering of the X-ray generated optical photons inside the detector. This new low-cost technique can provide a higher spatial resolution X-ray imager with sharper edges at the object boundaries in comparison to a single crystal scintillating macro detectors.