Novel Ceramic Scintillators for PET

Scintillation detectors, consisting of inorganic scintillation crystals coupled to photomultipliers, are an important element of medical imaging applications such as positron emission tomography (PET). Performance as well as cost of these systems is limited by the properties of the scintillation detectors available at present. The goal of this project is to investigate a new class of scintillation materials that can be fabricated using a low cost approach. The advantages expected from the proposed effort are higher performance and lower cost compared to existing scintillators used in PET. The Phase I project was aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of producing high performance scintillators using a low cost fabrication approach. Samples of these scintillators were produced and their performance was evaluated. The Phase II project will optimize performance as well as increase the size of the proposed scintillators. Extensive evaluation of these new scintillators will be conducted. PET modules will be constructed using these new scintillators and their performance will be characterized in detail. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: Over and above use in medical imaging, the new scintillators will be commercially applicable to nondestructive evaluation, bore hole logging, industrial computed tomography imaging, X-ray instrumentation, and materials analysis. They will also be useful in particle and space physics experiments.