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AGATA Collaboration(Soderstrom, P. A. et al), & Gadea, A. (2011). Interaction position resolution simulations and in-beam measurements of the AGATA HPGe detectors. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 638(1), 96–109.
Abstract: The interaction position resolution of the segmented HPGe detectors of an AGATA triple cluster detector has been studied through Monte Carlo simulations and in an in-beam experiment. A new method based on measuring the energy resolution of Doppler-corrected gamma-ray spectra at two different target to detector distances is described. This gives the two-dimensional position resolution in the plane perpendicular to the direction of the emitted gamma-ray. The gamma-ray tracking was used to determine the full energy of the gamma-rays and the first interaction point, which is needed for the Doppler correction. Five different heavy-ion induced fusion-evaporation reactions and a reference reaction were selected for the simulations. The results of the simulations show that the method works very well and gives a systematic deviation of <1 mm in the FVVHM of the interaction position resolution for the gamma-ray energy range from 60 keV to 5 MeV. The method was tested with real data from an in-beam measurement using a (30)5i beam at 64 MeV on a thin C-12 target. Pulse-shape analysis of the digitized detector waveforms and gamma-ray tracking was performed to determine the position of the first interaction point, which was used for the Doppler corrections. Results of the dependency of the interaction position resolution on the gamma-ray energy and on the energy, axial location and type of the first interaction point, are presented. The FVVHM of the interaction position resolution varies roughly linearly as a function of gamma-ray energy from 8.5 mm at 250 key to 4 mm at 1.5 MeV, and has an approximately constant value of about 4 mm in the gamma-ray energy range from 1.5 to 4 MeV.
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Soriano, A., Gonzalez, A., Orero, A., Moliner, L., Carles, M., Sanchez, F., et al. (2011). Attenuation correction without transmission scan for the MAMMI breast PET. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S75–S78.
Abstract: Whole-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners are required in order to span large Fields of View (FOV). Therefore, reaching the sensitivity and spatial resolution required for early stage breast tumor detection is not straightforward. MAMMI is a dedicated breast PET scanner with a ring geometry designed to provide PET images with a spatial resolution as high as 1.5 mm, being able to detect small breast tumors ( < 1 cm). The patient lays down in prone position during the scan, thus making possible to image the whole breast, up to regions close to the base of the pectoral without the requirement of breast compression. Attenuation correction (AC) for PET data improves the image quality and the quantitative accuracy of radioactivity distribution determination. In dedicated, high resolution breast cancer scanners, this correction would enhance the proper diagnosis in early disease stages. In whole-body PET scanners, AC is usually taken into account with the use of transmission scans, either by external radioactive rod sources or by Computed Tomography (CT). This considerably increases the radiation dose administered to the patient and time needed for the exploration. In this work we propose a method for breast shape identification by means of PET image segmentation. The breast shape identification will be used for the determination of the AC. For the case of a specific breast PET scanner the procedure we propose should provide AC similar to that obtained by transmission scans as we take advantage of the breast anatomical simplicity. Experimental validation of the proposed approach with a dedicated breast PET prototype is also presented. The main advantage of this method is an important dose reduction since the transmission scan is not required.
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Studen, A., Brzezinski, K., Chesi, E., Cindro, V., Clinthorne, N. H., Cochran, E., et al. (2013). Silicon detectors for combined MR-PET and MR-SPECT imaging. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 702, 88–90.
Abstract: Silicon based devices can extend PET-MR and SPECT-MR imaging to applications, where their advantages in performance outweigh benefits of high statistical counts. Silicon is in many ways an excellent detector material with numerous advantages, among others: excellent energy and spatial resolution, mature processing technology, large signal to noise ratio, relatively low price, availability, versatility and malleability. The signal in silicon is also immune to effects of magnetic field at the level normally used in MR devices. Tests in fields up to 7 T were performed in a study to determine effects of magnetic field on positron range in a silicon PET device. The curvature of positron tracks in direction perpendicular to the field's orientation shortens the distance between emission and annihilation point of the positron. The effect can be fully appreciated for a rotation of the sample for a fixed field direction, compressing range in all dimensions. A popular Ga-68 source was used showing a factor of 2 improvement in image noise compared to zero field operation. There was also a little increase in noise as the reconstructed resolution varied between 2.5 and 1.5 mm. A speculative applications can be recognized in both emission modalities, SPECT and PET. Compton camera is a subspecies of SPECT, where a silicon based scatter as a MR compatible part could inserted into the MR bore and the secondary detector could operate in less constrained environment away from the magnet. Introducing a Compton camera also relaxes requirements of the radiotracers used, extending the range of conceivable photon energies beyond 140.5 keV of the Tc-99m. In PET, one could exploit the compressed sub-millimeter range of positrons in the magnetic field. To exploit the advantage, detectors with spatial resolution commensurate to the effect must be used with silicon being an excellent candidate. Measurements performed outside of the MR achieving spatial resolution below 1 mm are reported.
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Studen, A., Chesi, E., Cindro, V., Clinthorne, N. H., Cochran, E., Grosicar, B., et al. (2011). A silicon PET probe. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S255–S258.
Abstract: PET scanners with high spatial resolution offer a great potential in improving diagnosis, therapy monitoring and treatment validation for several severe diseases. One way to improve resolution of a PET scanner is to extend a conventional PET ring with a small probe with excellent spatial resolution. The probe is intended to be placed close to the area of interest. The coincidences of interactions within the probe and the external ring provide a subset of data which combined with data from external ring, greatly improve resolution in the area viewed by the probe. Our collaboration is developing a prototype of a PET probe, composed of high-resolution silicon pad detectors. The detectors are 1 mm thick, measuring 40 by 26 mm(2), and several such sensors are envisaged to either compensate for low stopping power of silicon or increase the area covered by the probe. The sensors are segmented into 1 mm(3) cubic voxels, giving 1040 readout pads per sensor. A module is composed of two sensors placed in a back-to-back configuration, allowing for stacking fraction of up to 70% within a module. The pads are coupled to a set of 16 ASICs (VaTaGP7.1 by IDEAS) per module and read out through a custom designed data acquisition board, allowing for trigger and data interfacing with the external ring. This paper presents an overview of probe requirements and expected performance parameters. It will focus on the characteristics of the silicon modules and their impact on overall probe performance, including spatial resolution, energy resolution and timing resolution. We will show that 1 mm(3) voxels will significantly extend the spatial resolution of conventional PET rings, and that broadening of timing resolution related to varying depth of photon interactions can be compensated to match the timing resolution of the external ring. The initial test results of the probe will also be presented.
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Stuhl, L., Krasznahorkay, A., Csatlos, M., Algora, A., Gulyas, J., Kalinka, G., et al. (2014). A neutron spectrometer for studying giant resonances with (p,n) reactions in inverse kinematics. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 736, 1–9.
Abstract: A neutron spectrometer, the European Low-Energy Neutron Spectrometer (ELENS), has been constructed to study exotic nuclei in inverse-kinematics experiments. The spectrometer, which consists of plastic scintillator bars, can be operated in the neutron energy range of 100 keV-10 MeV. The neutron energy is determined using the time-of-flight technique, while the position of the neutron detection is deduced from the time-difference information from photomultipliers attached to both ends of each bar. A novel wrapping method has been developed for the plastic scintillators. The array has a larger than 25% detection efficiency for neutrons of approximately 500 keV in kinetic energy and an angular resolution of less than 1 degrees. Details of the design, construction and experimental tests of the spectrometer will be presented.
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