Radiation detector developments in medical applications: inorganic scintillators in positron emission tomography.
In recent years, a number of new gamma-ray scintillators are commercially available. These scintillators are either derived from known scintillators, e.g. Lu1-xYxAlO3: Ce (LuYAP) from LuAlO3:Ce and Lu(2(1-x))Y2xSiO5:Ce (LYSO) from Lu2SiO5:Ce or are the result of new discoveries, e.g. LaCl3:Ce and LaBr3:Ce. The first two materials are primarily of interest because of the relatively high detection efficiency and fast response; LYSO has found application in time-of-flight (TOF) positron-emission tomography (TOF PET) and the LuYAP-LYSO combination is used in small-animal PET. The halide scintillators have an excellent energy resolution of approximately 3% at 662 keV and they have a relatively high light yield. LaBr3:Ce is being studied for application in TOF PET. At the same time, the search for and research on new scintillator materials are going on. For example, LuI3:Ce is a new material with a very high light yield (approximately 90,000 photons MeV(-1)). Other examples of new materials are (C6H13NH3)2PbI4 and (C3H7NH3)2PbBr4, organic-inorganic hybrid compounds, of which the former has a very fast sub-nanosecond response. The new scintillators show great promise for new developments in medical applications, in particular, for PET systems.
van Eijk
Carel W E
CW
Radiation Detection and Matter, R3, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands. c.w.e.vaneijk@tudelft.nl
D006801:Humans; D008187:Lutetium; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011859:Radiography / Q000379:methods*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D017655:Silicon Compounds
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D017655:Silicon Compounds; D008187:Lutetium