High thermal conductivity scintillators for imaging

A scintillator comprising a plurality of stacked components, each stacked component from the plurality of stacked components comprising:

• a layer of material with thermal conductivity greater than a predetermined thermal conductivity;
• and
• a layer of scintillator material vacuum deposited on said layer;
• said each stacked component, starting with a second stacked component, being vacuum deposited on a preceding stacked component;
• wherein a thickness of each layer of material is obtained from estimations of temperature distribution, at various thicknesses of said each layer, formed by a predetermined radiation pulse impinging on a layer of Scintillator material most distant from a layer of material in a first stacked component from the plurality of stacked components, selected such as to prevent thermal damage of the scintillator;
• the predetermined thermal conductivity being selected from the estimations of temperature, at various thermal conductivities, such as to obtain predetermined results, the predetermined results including thermal conduction that prevents thermal damage of the scintillator.

A method for preventing thermal damage of a scintillator exposed to radiation due to energy, and fast timing of radiation beams, the method comprising:

• depositing a first layer of scintillator material on a first layer of a material with thermal conductivity greater than a predetermined thermal conductivity;
• and
• selecting a thickness of said first layer from estimations, at various thicknesses of said first layer, of temperature distribution formed by a predetermined radiation pulse impinging on a layer of scintillator material most distant from said first layer, wherein thermal conduction into said first layer prevents thermal damage of the scintillator;
• the predetermined thermal conductivity being selected from the estimations of temperature at various thermal conductivities, such as to prevent thermal damage of the scintillator.