Perovskite-Sensitized Silicon Detectors Featuring TOPCON Structure for Wide-Energy-Range and Fast-Response Radiation Detection

Semiconductor radiation detectors are essential in high-energy physics, nuclear physics, and photonics. While conventional silicon detectors are constrained in high-energy X-ray detection by their low atomic number, emerging perovskite detectors face limitations in high-frequency signal detection due to low carrier mobility. Here, we introduce a perovskite-sensitized silicon detector with a tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCON) structure that merges the wide-energy-range X-ray detection efficiency of perovskites with the high carrier mobility and effective passivation of silicon TOPCON. The perovskite layer reverses the energy-dependent sensitivity of silicon from decreasing to increasing in the 40 – 80 kVp range. Moreover, the TOPCON design reduces the dark current density to 797.4 nA cm–2 at 100 V (from 1.4 μA cm–2) and shortens rise and fall times to 1.4 and 1.3 ms under 80 kVp X-rays. Most importantly, the device demonstrates the first polycrystalline perovskite-based α-particle spectroscopy (241Am, 5.49 MeV) with 4.1% energy resolution and a response time of ∼250 ns, thereby challenging the conventional requirement for high-quality single crystals in such measurements.