Development of Positron Emission Tomography using Liquid Xenon Scintillation Detector System

液态Xe的性质被认为有利于应用于飞行时间位置发射断层扫描（TOF-PET）。在此之前，我们利用可在液态氙温度下工作的光电倍增管（PMT）构建了一个液态氙TOF-PET探测器的原型，并研究了它们的性能。然而，它们较差的量子效率和较低的增益不足以用于TOF-PET。最近，由Hamamatsu Photonics Co.开发的新型pmt在液态Xe中的量子效率提高了5倍，增益提高了10倍。这里展示的原型PET探测器是使用这些新型pmt构建的并进行了测试。能量分辨率为15.9% (FWHM)，位置分辨率为2.1 ~ 3.5mm (FWHM)，时序分辨率为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.