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Crystals
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Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications
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Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 12031

Special Issue Editors

Dr. David Stratos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, 12210 Athens, Greece
Interests: scintillating crystals and phosphor materials evaluation; medical imaging detectors; PET; SPECT; gamma-ray spectrometers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ioannis Kandarakis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Radiation Physics, Materials Technology and Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica, 12210 Athens, Greece
Interests: scintillators and powder phosphors evaluation for imaging applications; X-ray imaging, nuclear medicine, portal imaging and radiation therapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Scintillator materials are used as radiation-converting media in various applications of medical imaging. Particularly, scintillators (in powder, optical ceramic, or crystal form) are currently employed in a variety of applications, from low-energy examinations, such as mammography, general radiography, and computed tomography, to higher energies used in nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. Scintillators in crystal form are widely applied in nuclear medicine, for example in positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners. Current trends in multimodal imaging detectors (i.e., PET/CT, PET/MRI, and SPECT/MRI) recommend the exploitation of single-crystal scintillators or semi-transparent optical ceramics over a wider range of energies, covering CT/PET and portal imaging applications.

Nowadays, research activity is focused on mixed and co-doped inorganic crystals and optical ceramic materials, organic crystals, and nano-scintillators to obtain higher performance in accordance with the requirements of different applications.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect contributions about scintillators that involve growth production and experimental evaluation of single crystals, new crystalline host and co-doped scintillator materials, the integration of single crystals into medical devices, and theoretical calculations focusing on medical imaging applications.

Dr. Stratos David
Prof. Ioannis Kandarakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • scintillator crystals
  • inorganic scintillators
  • co-doped scintillators
  • mixed scintillators
  • phosphor materials
  • medical imaging
  • nuclear imaging detectors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 1187 KiB  
Article
Investigation of GaGG:Ce with TOFPET2 ASIC Readout for Applications in Gamma Imaging Systems
by Mihael Makek, Damir Bosnar, Ana Marija Kožuljević and Luka Pavelić
Crystals 2020, 10(12), 1073; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10121073 - 25 Nov 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3548
Abstract
We investigated two detector modules, each consisting of a 8 × 8 matrix of GaGG:Ce crystals with a crystal size of 3 × 3 × 20 mm3 and a 3.2 mm pitch. The light is collected by a 8 × 8 silicon [...] Read more.
We investigated two detector modules, each consisting of a 8 × 8 matrix of GaGG:Ce crystals with a crystal size of 3 × 3 × 20 mm3 and a 3.2 mm pitch. The light is collected by a 8 × 8 silicon photomultiplier array, with one silicon photomultiplier matching one crystal. The signals are read out and processed using the TOFPET2 ASIC. Performed laboratory tests of the detectors were performed using a 22Na source, where energy and coincidence time resolution with different optical coupling were examined between the crystals and silicon photomultipliers, as well as under various operating voltages. The mean energy resolution of 9.8±0.6% at 511 keV was observed and it was shown that the coincidence time resolution of 384±33 ps could be achieved. The results reassure that the GaGG scintillator is a very promising candidate for the development of imaging systems, in particular, ones utilizing Compton scattering where the energy resolution plays a critical role and a moderate timing performance is acceptable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications)
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15 pages, 4179 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Various Scintillator Materials in Radiation Detector Design for Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
by Siwei Xie, Xi Zhang, Yibin Zhang, Gaoyang Ying, Qiu Huang, Jianfeng Xu and Qiyu Peng
Crystals 2020, 10(10), 869; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10100869 - 25 Sep 2020
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4180
Abstract
The performance of radiation detectors used in positron-emission tomography (PET) is determined by the intrinsic properties of the scintillators, the geometry and surface treatment of the scintillator crystals and the electrical and optical characteristics of the photosensors. Experimental studies were performed to assess [...] Read more.
The performance of radiation detectors used in positron-emission tomography (PET) is determined by the intrinsic properties of the scintillators, the geometry and surface treatment of the scintillator crystals and the electrical and optical characteristics of the photosensors. Experimental studies were performed to assess the timing resolution and energy resolution of detectors constructed with samples of different scintillator materials (LaBr3, CeBr3, LFS, LSO, LYSO: Ce, Ca and GAGG) that were fabricated into different shapes with various surface treatments. The saturation correction of SiPMs was applied for tested detectors based on a Tracepro simulation. Overall, we tested 28 pairs of different forms of scintillators to determine the one with the best CTR and light output. Two common high-performance silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) provided by SensL (J-series, 6 mm) or AdvanSiD (NUV, 6 mm) were used for photodetectors. The PET detector constructed with 6 mm CeBr3 cubes achieved the best CTR with a FWHM of 74 ps. The 4 mm co-doped LYSO: Ce, Ca pyramid crystals achieved 88.1 ps FWHM CTR. The 2 mm, 4 mm and 6 mm 0.2% Ce, 0.1% Ca co-doped LYSO cubes achieved 95.6 ps, 106 ps and 129 ps FWHM CTR, respectively. The scintillator crystals with unpolished surfaces had better timing than those with polished surfaces. The timing resolution was also improved by using certain geometric factors, such as a pyramid shape, to improve light transportation in the scintillator crystals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications)
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11 pages, 1520 KiB  
Article
The Surface-Roughness Effects on Light Beam Interactions between the CsI Phosphor and Optical Sensing Materials
by Panagiotis Liaparinos and Stratos David
Crystals 2020, 10(3), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10030174 - 5 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2839
Abstract
In digital phosphor-based imaging modalities, one important intermediate stage is the optical coupling between the phosphor material and the optical sensor. The performance of the optical compatibility is affected by surface-roughness issues, for which further research should be paid. This paper investigates the [...] Read more.
In digital phosphor-based imaging modalities, one important intermediate stage is the optical coupling between the phosphor material and the optical sensor. The performance of the optical compatibility is affected by surface-roughness issues, for which further research should be paid. This paper investigates the surface-roughness influence between the CsI phosphor material and the optical sensing materials (i.e., the silicon dioxide—SiO2, the indium tin oxide—ITO, and the indium gallium arsenide—InGaAs) employed in several image devices. Results showed that for all sensing materials, the transmission factor t of the optical signal follows qualitatively the variation of their refractive indexes and quantitatively the variation of the surface roughness and the incident polar angle. Finally, with respect to light wavelength, the curve of variation was found to be continuous for ITO and SiO2 sensing materials; however, lower and sharper variations were observed in the first case. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scintillators for Medical Imaging Applications)
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