SYDNEY, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Researchers from the Australian state of Victoria have created the thinnest X-ray detector ever, which could bear major implications for how biologists are able to view and analyze cells.
The discovery, published in the Advanced Functional Materials journal, was the result of a research collaboration between researchers at Melbourne's Monash University and RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology).
The detectors created by the team, used an ultra-thin material called SnS nanosheets, which at just 10 nanometres thick were twice as thin as existing X-ray detectors, and about 10,000 times thinner than a piece of paper.
Professor Jacek Jasieniak of Monash's University Department of Materials Science and Engineering and senior author on the paper told Xinhua on Tuesday that it was the first time this material had been used in X-ray detectors.
"The material allows for X-rays to be effectively absorbed, which opens up these types of opportunities."
He said that it would allow biologists to observe interactions and processes between cells at a higher "temporal resolution". Previously, they could only study the outcome that these interactions would produce.
"You can scan something and get an image almost instantaneously. The sensing time dictates the time resolution. In principle, given the high sensitivity and high time resolution, you could be able to see things in real time," said Jasieniak.
Unlike the more commonly known "hard" X-rays used to scan for broken bones, their material would be used with "soft" X-rays which operate at the lower end of the X-ray spectrum.
Soft X-rays are used to study the structure of biological samples, such as tissue samples, at the nanoscale.
Jasieniak said at this early stage the true potential of the breakthrough remains to be fully seen.
The first author of the study Babar Shabbir told Xinhua the next step for the team would be testing different thicknesses of devices in different biological cell environments.
"This provides us with a knowledge platform and a prototype," he said. Enditem
