Scholars@Duke publication: Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system

Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system

Publication , Journal Article

Tornai, MP; Brzymialkiewicz, CN; Weisenberger, AG; Wojcik, R; Popov, V; Majewski, S; Keppel, CE; Levin, CS; Tipnis, SV; Nagarkar, VV

Published in: IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference

December 1, 2000

A compact imaging system with a novel front-end detector is under investigation and development. Unique aspects of this collimator-less system include the use of many thousands of micro-columnar (<10 μm diameter) CsI front-end scintillators (140 and 200 microns tall on faceplates of plane glass, fiber optics (FO), and FO with statistical extramural absorbers (EMA)) that are coupled through a 4 times reducing FO bundle to a metal-channel multianode position sensitive photo-detector. The highly discrete nature of the scintillator micro-column arrays ensures very fine intrinsic spatial resolution, limited by the particle penetration and backscatter in the detector assembly, while their retro-reflector-tipped front-ends facilitate light propagation towards the photo-detector. Monte Carlo simulations confirmed the limiting nature of particle penetration on measurable resolution. With this system, absolute light output was highest for the taller arrays, which contradicts results of using much larger, quantized scintillators in other applications. While MTF measurements with an x-ray source indicate the best response with the arrays on FO+EMA substrates, measurements with high and medium (1.7 MeV and 635 keV) energy beta line sources yield the best responses with the plane glass substrate indicating that energy thresholding affects resolution in the classical way, even with these highly miniaturized arrays. Further experiments of complex positron emission distributions along with large gamma ray backgrounds yield images with minimal background contamination and no distortions.

Published In

IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference

Publication Date

December 1, 2000

Volume

Citation

APA

Chicago

ICMJE

MLA

NLM

Tornai, M. P., Brzymialkiewicz, C. N., Weisenberger, A. G., Wojcik, R., Popov, V., Majewski, S., … Nagarkar, V. V. (2000). Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system. IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 3.

Tornai, M. P., C. N. Brzymialkiewicz, A. G. Weisenberger, R. Wojcik, V. Popov, S. Majewski, C. E. Keppel, C. S. Levin, S. V. Tipnis, and V. V. Nagarkar. “Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system.” IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference 3 (December 1, 2000).

Tornai MP, Brzymialkiewicz CN, Weisenberger AG, Wojcik R, Popov V, Majewski S, et al. Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system. IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. 2000 Dec 1;3.

Tornai, M. P., et al. “Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system.” IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, vol. 3, Dec. 2000.

Tornai MP, Brzymialkiewicz CN, Weisenberger AG, Wojcik R, Popov V, Majewski S, Keppel CE, Levin CS, Tipnis SV, Nagarkar VV. Investigation of micro-columnar scintillators on an optical fiber coupled compact imaging system. IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference. 2000 Dec 1;3.