Novel Scintillator for PET Imaging

75530S Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful imaging tool that can provide diagnosis for symptoms of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, head trauma and stroke. However, the performance of current clinical PET systems is limited by available detector technology, and there is an urgent need for improvement in PET instrumentation, in order to exploit the full potential of this promising technique. This project will develop a new detector material for PET that shows high light output, fast response and high sensitivity, leading to a detector with high energy and timing resolution. Other benefits include significantly reduced scatter and randoms, the main limitations in three-dimensional PET, and the possibility of time-of-flight PET imaging. During Phase I, crystals of the new scintillation material were grown and their scintillation properties were measured. These crystals showed exceptionally high light output, fast response, and excellent energy and timing resolution. During Phase II , larger crystals of the proposed scintillation material will be grown. The light output, decay time, and energy and timing resolution of these large crystals will be determined as a function of the doping level. Arrays will be built using the new scintillation crystals and PET modules will be assembled and tested using these arrays. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The detector technology should be very promising for PET and other medical imaging modalities such as X-ray computed tomography. It also should be useful in nuclear and particle physics research, astronomy, nuclear waste characterization, homeland security, and geophysical exploration.