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International audienceFive single crystals of cerium-doped lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO:Ce) grown by the Czochralski method were submitted to structural characterisation by X-ray (XRD) and neutron (ND) diffraction, scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy and energy dispersive microanalysis (EDS). The Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), the Young Modulus (YM) and the Light Yield (LY) of the samples were also measured in order to correlate the mechanical and the optical behaviour of the crystals with the characteristics of their microstructure. Two of the samples analysed were also heat treated at 300 °C for 10 h to evidence possible variations induced by the temperature in the optical and mechanical response of the crystals. Results showed that the mean compositional variations evidenced by the structural analyses do not affect the mechanical and optical behaviour of the samples. On the contrary, the thermal treatment could induce the formation of coherent spherical particles (size 10 to 15 nm), not uniformly distributed inside the sample, that strongly reduce the UTS and YM values, but it does not affect the optical response of the crystal. This latter result was attributed to the low value of the heating temperature (300 °C) that is not sufficiently high to induce annealing of the oxygen vacancies traps that are responsible of the deterioration of the scintillation properties of the LYSO:Ce crystals.This study was carried out in the framework of the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC)

ClearPEM-Sonic is an innovative imaging device specifically developed for breast cancer. The possibility to work in PEM-Ultrasound multimodality allows to obtain metabolic and morphological information increasing the specificity of the exam. The ClearPEM detector is developed to maximize the sensitivity and the spatial resolution as compared to Whole-Body PET scanners. It is coupled with a 3D ultrasound system, the SuperSonic Imagine Aixplorer that improves the specificity of the exam by providing a tissue elasticity map. This work describes the ClearPEM-Sonic project focusing on the technological developments it has required, the technical merits (and limits) and the first multimodal images acquired on a dedicated phantom. It finally presents selected clinical case studies that confirm the value of PEM information.

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