Development of TlBr detectors for PET imaging

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Semiconductor Detectors
• Nuclear Physics

Background:

• Thallium bromide (TlBr) is a semiconductor material with potential for positron emission tomography (PET) detectors.
• TlBr offers advantages in energy resolution, 3D segmentation, and detection efficiency over conventional scintillators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the energy, timing, and spatial resolution of thin thallium bromide (TlBr) detectors for PET applications.
• To assess the performance of TlBr detectors as a viable alternative to current PET detector materials.

Main Methods:

• Measured energy and timing resolution simultaneously on a 0.87 mm-thick TlBr detector at room temperature and -400 V bias.
• Determined intrinsic spatial resolution using a TlBr detector with 0.5 mm pitch metallic strip contacts.

Main Results:

• Achieved energy resolution of (6.4 ± 1.3)% at 511 keV.
• Obtained timing resolution of (27.8 ± 4.1) ns FWHM with energy gating.
• Measured intrinsic spatial resolution of 0.9 mm FWHM.

Conclusions:

• Thin TlBr detectors demonstrate promising performance metrics for PET imaging.
• Further improvements in material properties and bias voltage could enhance timing resolution.
• Modular detectors using stacked thin TlBr layers with segmented readout are suitable for advanced PET systems.