Scintillation crystals for PET

Abstract

In PET, inorganic scintillator crystals are used to record gamma-rays produced by the annihilation of positrons emitted by injected tracers. The ultimate performance of the camera is strongly tied to both the physical and scintillation properties of the crystals. For this reason, researchers have investigated virtually all known scintillator crystals for possible use in PET. Despite this massive research effort, only a few different scintillators have been found that have a suitable combination of characteristics, and only 2 (thallium-doped sodium iodide and bismuth germanate) have found widespread use. A recently developed scintillator crystal, cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate, appears to surpass all previously used materials in most respects and promises to be the basis for the next generation of PET cameras.