All-inorganic lattice-contracted fabric image sensors for extreme-temperature radiography.

Abstract

Conventional X‑ray sensing fails in extreme temperatures due to a fundamental trilemma: no material offers strong absorption, flexibility, and thermal stability simultaneously. Rigid inorganic scintillators exhibit thermal quenching above 450 K and cannot conform to curved surfaces, while flexible polymer-supported composites suffer from weak absorption and thermal degradation. We break this deadlock with an all-inorganic fabric scintillator (AIFS) enabled by a lattice contraction strategy that suppresses electron-phonon coupling and eliminates thermal quenching. AIFS maintains over 95% of its light output from 80 to 1373 K, tripling the operational limit of state-of-the-art X-ray sensors, while maintaining softness and achieving tenfold higher X‑ray absorption than polymer alternatives. We demonstrate real‑time monitoring of molten metals ( > 700 K) and superconducting magnets ( < 80 K), overcoming geometric mismatch, polymer degradation, and thermal drift. This work establishes a paradigm for shape‑adaptive imaging in extreme environments, from quantum devices to aerospace components.