Simultaneous reconstruction of scintillation light and ionization charge produced by 511 keV photons in liquid xenon : potential application to PET

TL;DR

This study evaluates a liquid xenon detector's ability to simultaneously measure scintillation light and ionization charge from 511 keV photons, aiming to improve PET imaging performance.

Contribution

It demonstrates the combined detection of scintillation light and ionization charge in liquid xenon for PET, analyzing operational conditions and optimizing detector design.

Findings

Energy resolution <10% achieved

Relationship between light and charge signals characterized

Sources of fluctuations identified for future improvements

Abstract

In order to assess the performance of liquid xenon detectors for use in positron emission tomography we studied the scintillation light and ionization charge produced by 511 keV photons in a small prototype detector. Scintillation light was detected with large area avalanche photodiodes while ionization electrons were collected on an anode instrumented with low noise electronics after drifting up to 3 cm. Operational conditions were studied as a function of the electric field. Energy resolutions of <10 % (FWHM) were achieved by combining the scintillation light and ionization charge signals. The relationship between scintillation light and ionization signals was investigated. An analysis of the sources of fluctuations was performed in order to optimize future detector designs.