title: Lubberts effect in columnar phosphors.
abstract: Noise transfer in granular x-ray imaging phosphor screens is not proportional to the square of the magnitude of the signal transfer when the transfer properties are considered for the entire screen thickness, unless appropriately weighted at each depth of interaction. This property, known as the Lubberts effect, has not yet been studied in columnar structured screens because of a lack of a generalized description of the depth-dependent light transport. In this paper, we investigate the signal and noise transfer characteristics of columnar phosphors used in digital mammography detectors using DETECT-II, an optical Monte Carlo light transport simulation code. We first validate our choice of optical parameters for the description of granular and columnar screens using published normalized modulation transfer (MTF) experimental data. Our calculations of MTF match empirically measured MTFs for a granular film/screen analog system, and for an indirect x-ray digital imaging system with CsI:Tl screen representative of digital mammography systems. Using the depth-dependent spread functions and collection efficiencies, we calculate the signal and noise transfer functions and the Lubberts fraction, which is the ratio of the signal transfer function to the noise transfer function, for different screen thicknesses of granular and columnar phosphors. We find that the Lubberts fraction of a 85 microm granular screen model corresponding to a Gd2O2S:Tb screen is similar to the fraction for a 100 microm columnar CsI:Tl screen.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Assessment of Medical Imaging Systems, Center for Devices and Radiological Health (FDA) and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIH), Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA. aldo.badano@fda.hhs.gov
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Badano
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gagne
authors.forename: Brandon D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Gallas
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Boswell
authors.forename: Kyle J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000528:radiation effects*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014963:X-Ray Intensifying Screens
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus