Comparison of LuYAP, LSO, and BGO as scintillators for high resolution PET detectors

Abstract

For high resolution positron emission tomographs based on scintillation detectors a fast, dense, and bright scintillator is required. A sample of a new scintillator, Lu 0 8 Y 0 2 AlO 3 :Ce (LuYAP) with a density of 7.7 g cm 3 and a scintillation decay time of 20 and 160 ns is compared with LSO and BGO crystals of the same size to estimate the potential of the crystal for high resolution PET detectors. Special attention was paid to use an application specific measurement setup with respect to high resolution PET. The light yield of the crystals using polished crystals as well as PTFE tape and BaSO 4 as reflector material and the temperature dependence of the light yield are measured using crystals of 2 2 10 mm 3 . At room temperature, the light yields of BGO : LuYAP : LSO are 1 : 1.5 : 4.5 with energy resolutions of 27.4% (BGO), 20% (LuYAP) and 15% (LSO), respectively. LuYAP shows an increase in light yield with increasing temperature whereas both BGO and LSO show a decrease.

Growth and scintillation properties of Pr doped Gd3(Ga,Al)5O12 single crystals

“…More specifically, the Gd 3 þ site was substituted by Pr 3 þ according to the formula of (Pr y Gd 1-y ) 3 (Ga x Al 1-x ) 5 …”

“…[1] In past decades, scintillators with the best figure-of-merit given by a combination of stopping power, speed and light yield are the recently developed Ce-activated materials [2][3][4][5]. On the other hand, Pr 3 þ ion also shows the 5d-4f emission with the fast decay time in several host materials and such systems can be another candidate for high figure-of-merit scintillator.…”

“…Ga x Al 1-x )5 O 12 (x ¼0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) crystals were grown by the m-PD method. Example photos are shown in Pr1%:Gd 3 Al 5 O 12 crystal could not be obtained by the same growth conditions.…”

Large size single crystal growth of Lu3Al5O12:Pr and their uniformity of scintillation properties

“…Table 1 shows a comparison of Pr:LuAG and popular cerium-activated scintillators such as Ce:Lu 2 SiO 5 (Ce:LSO) [9][10][11], (Lu,Y)AlO 3 (LuAP) [12][13][14][15], and Ce:LaBr 3 [16][17][18]. Owing to this excellent properties, Pr:LuAG scintillator is attracting attention for gammaray detectors for oil well logging and has potential applications in high-energy physics and medical field such as PET (Positron emission computed tomography).…”

Image reconstruction for the ClearPET™ Neuro

“…2 Â 2 Â 10 mm LSO and LuYAP crystals [11,12] are coupled in phoswich configuration to the 64 photocathode channels of the photomultiplier tube (Fig. 1).…”