High spatial resolution measurement of depth-of-interaction of a PET LSO crystal

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Vol. 546; no. 1; pp. 33 - 36
• Main Authors: Simon, A., Balkay, L., Kalinka, G., Kerek, A., Novák, D., Sipos, A., Végh, J., Trón, L., Molnár, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-07-2005
• Subjects: Depth-of-interaction (DOI); detector; Nuclear microprobe; PET; Photomultiplier; scanning proton microprobe; 87.58.Fg; 29.40.−n; 41.75.Ak; Nuclear microprobe; Photomultiplier; 06.30.Bp; Depth-of-interaction (DOI); 87.58.−b; PET
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2005.03.036

A new type of experimental technique to investigate the depth-of-interaction (DOI) dependence in small scintillator elements designed for high-resolution animal PET is tested. An Oxford-type nuclear microprobe was used to irradiate a lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) crystal (2×2×10
mm
3) with a highly focused, (few micrometers diam.), 2
MeV He
+ beam. Pulse height spectra from a PMT attached to one end of the LSO crystal were collected in list mode. By scanning the beam over the crystal high-resolution 2D-images are generated and thus the DOI effect in the scintillator could be investigated. The obtained results of the overall DOI dependence confirm previous findings using γ-rays. Since the present experimental setup allows obtaining data with several orders of magnitude better spatial resolution than with collimated γ-beam, the method can be applied for variety of problems where high spatial resolution is required.