Investigating the spatial resolution characteristics of a monolithic scintillation detector for pet

A key component of a PET system is the detection of the coincident gamma rays associated with positron decay. For most applications, the modern commercial scanners are limited by sensitivity. Although essentially all current commercial PET systems use pixelated designs, there has been a resurgence of the use of continuous crystal designs, particularly for preclinical scanner designs. There has also been a move away from the traditional Anger logic style of position decoding toward implementation of statistical estimation algorithms to locate an event in two or three dimensions. Continuous crystals offer advantages of improved position sampling, reduced dead space, and the ability to calibrate light-spread to measure the depth-of-interaction (DOI) to reduce parallax errors. The aim of this thesis is to study the factors that affect the performance of continuous crystals in an attempt to achieve the best trade-off between light-output, stopping power, light-spread, and sampling, while maintaining high sensitivity and good spatial and energy resolution. The methodology includes a combination of Monte Carlo simulations and experiments with continuous LYSO crystals of various thicknesses, with particular focus on a 25-mm thick crystal, which is on par with the pixels used in clinical scanners. Non-invasive techniques involving the use of sandpaper, paints, and films are used to maximize the light extraction from the crystal, and to reduce the edge effects. The effect of DOI on the light spread is investigated and a DOI calibration technique is implemented, which allows for a 2-level depth separation of events. Lastly, a more invasive technique of cutting slots into the crystal surface is investigated to control the light spread within the crystal to improve the spatial resolution. Combining 8-mm deep slots with selective darkening of the crystal sides we improve the spatial resolution of the 25-mm thick LYSO crystal from 5.3 mm to 3.5 mm (FWHM) using Maximum Likelihood positioning, with a 3% loss in energy resolution and no DOI information