Brown, MS;
(2016)
The timing performance of scintillator detectors.
Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The timing performance of the scintillator detector is of critical importance to positron emission tomography. An improvement in this quantity will lead to dramatically improved image quality giving better information to clinicians. With the recent large improvements in the performance of scintillator detectors, due to switches to new inorganic scintillator crystals such as LYSO and new photodetectors such as MPPCs, smaller e ects are no longer negligible if we wish to continue to improve. In this PhD I present a Fisher Information based statistical model. This allows light-based contributions to the timing performance to be quanti ed. The model allows us to suggest areas of attack which could lead to further improvement in scintillator detector performance. To validate this model, experimental work has been carried out at UCL and CERN. This validation is split into radiation and optical measurements. I rst present a new study into the e ect of the interaction position within the scintillator crystal upon the timing performance. The radiation results demonstrate no relationship between the two e ects. Secondly to explore this relationship further, I performed measurements looking at how the surface pro le of the scintillator crystal alters light propagation through it. These measurements are performed using time correlated single photon counting and a re ection goniophotometer. The optical results demonstrate the surface can delay propagation of light through the scintillator crystal. With the validated model, estimates of the Cramer Rao Lower Bound are made for vari- ous potential improvements such as preferred direction surface scattering and refractive index mismatch correction. I conclude with the presentation of one potential method; namely util- ising metasurfaces upon the lateral faces of scintillator crystals to scatter light towards the photodetector.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Title: | The timing performance of scintillator detectors |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1529375 |
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