title: Progress in the development of a PET scanner based on BaF2 scintillator and photosensitive wire chambers.
abstract: The work presented is part of a design study for a Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) scanner based on the use of BaF2 scintillator and photosensitive wire chambers. The detection efficiency for gamma radiation of 511 keV is found close to 100% for a sufficiently large crystal. For a matrix of small and elongated crystals as one would use in a PET scanner (5 x 5 x 50 mm3) we obtained 6 photoelectrons per 511 keV deposited. The following variants and alternatives were also studied: operation of the wire chamber at atmospheric pressure; double readout where the crystals are read on one side with a photomultiplier to give time and energy resolution, and on the other side with a wire chamber to localise the event; and Csl photocathodes. Encouraging results have been obtained for each of these, but particularly the Csl photocathodes look very promising.
authors.affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tavernier
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bruyndonckx
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guerard
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001464:Barium; D017609:Barium Compounds; D003460:Crystallization; D004566:Electrodes; D004583:Electrons; D004867:Equipment Design; D005459:Fluorides; D005720:Gamma Rays; D006801:Humans; D012588:Scintillation Counting; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D017609:Barium Compounds; D001464:Barium; C055150:barium fluoride; D005459:Fluorides