Development of Positron Emission Tomography using Liquid Xenon Scintillation Detector System

液体造影剂的性质被认为是有利的应用于飞行时间位置发射断层扫描（TOF-PET）。在此之前，我们构建了一个原型的液体PETTOF-PET探测器使用光电倍增管（PMT），它可以在液体氙气温度下工作，并研究了它们的性能。然而，它们的低量子效率和低增益不足以用于TOF-PET。最近，新的光电倍增管具有五倍高的量子效率，在液体中，10倍高的增益比以前的光电倍增管已开发的滨松光子学公司的原型PET探测器，在这里，使用这些新的光电倍增管构建和测试。能量分辨率为15.9%（FWHM），位置分辨率为2.1- 3.5mm（FWHM），时间分辨率为260 ps（FWHM）。

The properties of liquid Xe are considered to be advantageous for application to time-of-flight position emission tomography (TOF-PET). Previously, we constructed a prototype liquid Xe TOF-PET detector using photomultiplier tubes(PMT), which can operate at liquid xenon temperature, and investigated their performance. Their poor quantum efficiency and low gain, however, were not sufficient for use in TOF-PET. Recently, new PMTs with five times higher quantum efficiency in liquid Xe and ten times higher gain than previous PMTs have been developed by Hamamatsu Photonics Co. The prototype PET detectors, presented here, were constructed using these new PMTs and tested. An energy resolution of 15.9% (FWHM), a position resolution of 2.1- 3.5mm (FWHM), and a timing resolution of 260 ps (FWHM) were achieved.