[Lithium fluoride: not only dosimetry, but also X ray imaging?].

Lithium fluoride is a well known material used for dosimetry. In the last years it was proposed and tested also as imaging detector for X-ray microscopy. Optical microscopy represents the oldest and most used imaging technique for medicine and cell biology investigations; later other imaging techniques, including electron microscopy, were introduced. The recent technological developments in the soft X-ray field, concerning sources, optics and detectors, have been increased the interest of physicians and biologists for X-ray microscopy, mainly to obtain in vivo imaging of cells. An innovative imaging detector has been proposed and tested by researchers of C.R. ENEA Frascati, as handy, versatile and compact plate for soft X-ray imaging with very high spatial resolution, wide dynamic range, large field of view and easy to read by an optical microscope. Scientific and technological applications can be foreseen in several fields, as nanotechnologies, materials, photonics, life science and microscopy (including cell imaging, also in vivo).