Test of a single module of the J-PET scanner based on plastic scintillators

TL;DR

This paper reports on testing a single module of the J-PET scanner using plastic scintillators, demonstrating promising time and spatial resolution for gamma detection in PET imaging.

Contribution

It presents the first performance evaluation of a plastic scintillator module for PET, including timing, spatial, and energy resolution measurements.

Findings

Time resolution better than 80ps (sigma)

Spatial resolution about 0.93cm (sigma)

Energy resolution of 7.5% at the Compton edge

Abstract

Time of Flight Positron Emission Tomography scanner based on plastic scintillators is being developed at the Jagiellonian University by the J-PET collaboration. The main challenge of the conducted research lies in the elaboration of a method allowing application of plastic scintillators for the detection of low energy gamma quanta. In this article we report on tests of a single detection module built out from BC-420 plastic scintillator strip (with dimensions of 5x19x300mm^3) read out at two ends by Hamamatsu R5320 photomultipliers. The measurements were performed using collimated beam of annihilation quanta from the 68Ge isotope and applying the Serial Data Analyzer (Lecroy SDA6000A) which enabled sampling of signals with 50ps intervals. The time resolution of the prototype module was established to be better than 80ps (sigma) for a single level discrimination. The spatial resolution of the determination of the hit position along the strip was determined to be about 0.93cm (sigma) for the annihilation quanta. The fractional energy resolution for the energy E deposited by the annihilation quanta via the Compton scattering amounts to sigma(E)/E = 0.044/sqrt(E[MeV]) and corresponds to the sigma(E)/E of 7.5% at the Compton edge.