A novel range telescope concept for proton CT

Proton beam therapy can potentially offer improved treatment for cancers of the head and neck and in paediatric patients. There has been asharp uptake of proton beam therapy in recent years as improved delivery techniques and patient benefits are observed. However, treatments are currently planned using conventional x-ray CT images due to the absence of devices able to perform high quality proton computed tomography(pCT) under realistic clinical conditions. A new plastic-scintillator-based range telescope concept, named ASTRA, is proposed here to measure the proton’s energy loss in a pCT system. Simulations conducted using GEANT4 yield an expected energy resolution of 0.7%. If calorimetric information is used the energy resolution could be further improved to about 0.5%. In addition, the ability of ASTRA to track multiple protons simultaneously is presented. Due to its fast components, ASTRA is expected to reach unprecedented data collection rates, similar to 10^8 protons/s.The performance of ASTRA has also been tested by simulating the imaging of phantoms. The results show excellent image contrast and relative stopping power reconstruction.

Development and Evaluation of a Dual-Layer-Offset PET Detector Constructed with Different Reflectors

Dual-layer-offset or multi-layer-offset design of a PET detector can improve spatial resolution while maintaining high sensitivity. In this study, three dual-layer-offset LYSO detectors with three different reflectors (ESR, Toray, and BaSO4) were developed. The top layer consisted of a 17 × 17 array of crystals 1 × 1 × 6.5 mm3 in size and the bottom layer consisted of an 18 × 18 array of crystals 1 × 1 × 9.5 mm3 in size. Neither light guides nor optical glue were used between the two layers of crystals. A custom-designed electronics system, composed of a 6 × 6 SiPM array, two FPC cables, and a custom-designed data processing module, was used to read out signals. An optimized interaction-decoding algorithm using the center of gravity to determine the position and threshold of analog signals for timing methods was applied to generate decoding flood histograms. The detector performances, in terms of peak to valley ratio of the flood histograms and energy resolutions, were calculated and compared. The dual-layer-offset PET detector constructed with BaSO4 reflectors performed much better than the other two reflectors in both crystal identification and energy resolution. The average peak-to-valley ratio and the energy resolution were approximately 7 and 11%, respectively. In addition, the crystals in the bottom layer showed better performance at crystal identification than those in the top layer. This study can act as a reference providing guidance in choosing scintillator reflectors for multi-layer dedicated DOI detectors designed for small-animal PET imaging.

Multi-contrast CT imaging using a high energy resolution CdTe detector and a CZT photon-counting detector

Computed tomography (CT) imaging with high energy resolution detectors shows great promise in material decomposition and multi-contrast imaging. Multi-contrast imaging was studied by imaging a phantom with iodine (I), gadolinium (Gd), and gold (Au) solutions, and mixtures of the three using a cadmium telluride (CdTe) spectrometer with an energy resolution of 1% as well as with a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector with an energy resolution of 13%. The phantom was imaged at 120 kVp and 1.1 mA with 7 mm of aluminum filtration. For the CdTe data collection, the phantom was imaged using a 0.2 mm diameter x-ray beam with 96 ten-second data acquisitions across the phantom at 45 rotation angles. For the CZT detector, we had 720 projections using a cone beam, and the six detector energy thresholds were set to 23, 33, 50, 64, 81, and 120 keV so that three thresholds corresponded to the K-edges of the contrast agents. Contrast agent isolation methods were then examined. K-edge subtraction and novel spectrometric algebraic image reconstruction (SAIR) were used for the CdTe data. K-edge subtraction alone was used for the CZT data. Linearity plots produced similar R 2 values and slopes for all three reconstruction methods. Comparing CdTe methods, SAIR offered less noise than CdTe K-edge subtraction and better geometric accuracy at low contrast concentrations. CdTe contrast agent images of I, Gd, and Au offered less noise and greater contrast than the CZT images, highlighting the benefits of high energy resolution CdTe detectors for possible use in pre-clinical or clinical CT imaging.

High resolution plutonium-239/240 mixture alpha spectroscopy using centrifugally tensioned metastable fluid detector sensor technology

This paper presents a novel and rapid, wet chemistry technique for spectroscopically detecting trace (∼10−3 Bq mL−1) level alpha emitting radionuclides mixtures with under 10 keV alpha energy resolution – with 100% gamma–beta rejection.

Ultrafast Temporal Evolution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in NeKr Dimers

We investigate interatomic Coulombic decay in NeKr dimers after neon inner-valence photoionization [Ne+(2s-1)] using a synchrotron light source. We measure with energy resolution the two singly charged ions of the...

Photoelectron Spectroscopy in Molecular Physical Chemistry

Photoelectron spectroscopy has long been a powerful method in the toolbox of experimental physical chemistry and molecular physics. Recent improvements in coincidence methods, charged-particle imaging, and electron energy resolution have...

Design and optimization of a breast-dedicated SPECT scanner with multi-lofthole collimation

Background: the need for simultaneous high-sensitivity and high-resolution breast SPECT imaging mandates to design and optimize dedicated scanners. Therefore, this work aims to design and optimize a novel breast-dedicated SPECT system with multi-lofthole collimator. Materials and Methods: in this research, a novel breast-dedicated scanner is designed and then optimized. The scanner is equipped with a single full-ring multi-lofthole collimation long with modular NaI(Tl) detectors. The step-and-shoot data acquisition was considered with two steps. Then, an analytic optimization was conducted to balance the existing sensitivity-resolution tradeoff. To do so, several scanner geometries were investigated. The optimal configuration maximized the system sensitivity at a given system resolution. Furthermore, the scanner was also modeled within the GATE simulator. Then, detector energy resolution, septal penetration and scattering, and system sensitivity were calculated. Analytic findings were also compared with the simulated ones. Results: the results showed that high sensitivity of about 2 cps/kBq can be obtained for a diameter of lofthole 3.05 mm with a 75° opening angle. Results of GATE simulations showed clinically acceptable performance of the system offering 9% energy resolution for a point source. The septal penetration and scattering were approximately 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively, for cylindrical water phantom and tungsten as collimator material. Conclusion: the designed SPECT scanner provides promising results in terms of sensitivity and spatial resolution and therefore outperforms the traditional multi-pinhole collimation by a much higher sensitivity at a given system resolution.

Bias-voltage dependent operational characteristics of a fully spectroscopic pixelated cadmium telluride detector system within an experimental benchtop x-ray fluorescence imaging setup

Commercially available fully spectroscopic pixelated cadmium telluride (CdTe) detector systems have been adopted lately for benchtop x-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging/computed tomography (XFCT) of objects containing metal nanoprobes such as gold nanoparticles (GNPs). To date, however, some important characteristics of such detector systems under typical operating conditions of benchtop XRF/XFCT imaging systems are not well known. One important but poorly studied characteristic is the effect of detector bias-voltage on photon counting efficiency, energy resolution, and the resulting material detection limit. In this work, therefore, we investigated these characteristics for a commercial pixelated detector system adopting a 1-mm-thick CdTe sensor (0.25-mm pixel-pitch), known as HEXITEC, incorporated into an experimental benchtop cone-beam XFCT system with parallel-hole detector collimation. The detector system, operated at different bias-voltages, was used to acquire the gold XRF/Compton spectra from 1.0 wt% GNP-loaded phantom irradiated with 125 kVp x-rays filtered by 1.8-mm Tin. At each bias-voltage, the gold XRF signal, and the full-width-at-half-maximum at gold Kα 2 XRF peak (∼67 keV) provided photon counting efficiency and energy resolution, respectively. Under the current experimental conditions, the detector photon counting efficiency and energy resolution improved with increasing bias-voltage by ∼41 and ∼29% at −300V; ∼54 and ∼35% at −500V, respectively, when compared to those at −100V. Consequently, the GNP detection limit improved by ∼26% at −300V and ∼30% at −500V. Furthermore, the homogeneity of per-pixel energy resolution within the collimated detector area improved by ∼34% at −300V and ∼54% at −500V. These results suggested the gradual improvements in the detector performance with increasing bias-voltage up to −500V. However, at and beyond −550V, there were no discernible improvements in photon counting efficiency and energy resolution. Thus, the bias-voltage range of −500 to −550V was found optimal under the current experimental conditions that are considered typical of benchtop XRF/XFCT imaging tasks.

Exploration of grid scheme for Frisch-grid ionization chamber

A new Frisch-grid ionization chamber has been built to explore the appropriate choice of Frisch-grid. Detailed studies of the relationship between grid geometries and detector performance have been performed with an $$^{241}$$ 241 Am source. This paper describes and compares the energy resolution of ionization chambers with parallel-wire and mesh grids of different grid parameters. Some specific recommendations for grid selection are provided based on the data currently available. To obtain optimal energy resolution, the operating voltage of the chamber must satisfy the condition of minimum electron collection on the grid with distinct geometries and parameters, respectively. Since there is no established theory applicable to both types of grids, we have devised a careful simulation procedure incorporating the COMSOL and Garfield++ codes to search for the conditions of the minimum electron collection on the grid. The simulation results fit the experimental data well, suggesting that this simulation method successfully predicts the suitable voltage setting when using a mesh grid or parallel wires grid as the shielding electrode.