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A New Scintillator for Time-of-Flight
Dr. Gerald Entine,
Dr. Gerald Entine, Business
Official, GEntine@rmdinc.com
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-05ER84299
Amount: $100,000
Scintillation detectors,
consisting of inorganic scintillation crystals coupled to PMTs, are an
important element of medical imaging applications such as positron emission
tomography (PET). Yet, the performance
of these systems is limited by the properties of the currently available scintillation
detectors. If faster scintillators were
available, significant advancement in image quality could be achieved by
reducing randoms and instituting time-of-flight. This project will investigate a new
scintillator that is both fast and bright, and, as a result, promises excellent
energy and timing resolution. Reduction
in scatter and randoms should lead to significant improvement in image quality for
time-of-flight PET. In Phase I, crystals
of the new scintillator will be produced and their performance will be
evaluated.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Over and above their use in medical imaging, the new scintillators should be commercially applicable to non-destructive evaluation, geological exploration, homeland security, and materials analysis. They also should be useful in nuclear, particle, and space physics experiments.