Status and perspectives of the PETALO project

TL;DR

The PETALO project explores a liquid xenon-based PET scanner with silicon photomultipliers, demonstrating promising energy and time resolution in a prototype for potential total-body imaging applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel PET scanner concept using liquid xenon and SiPMs, with a working prototype testing key technical and performance aspects.

Findings

Prototype successfully detects 511-keV gamma pairs

Demonstrates good energy and time resolution

Validates technical feasibility for total-body PET

Abstract

PETALO (Positron Emission Tof Apparatus with Liquid xenOn) is a novel concept for positron emission tomography scanners, which uses liquid xenon as a scintillation medium and silicon photomultipliers as a readout. The large scintillation yield and the fast scintillation time of liquid xenon, as well as its scalability, makes it an excellent candidate for PET scanners with Time-of-Flight measurements, especially for total-body machines. A first prototype of PETALO is fully operating, devoted to demonstrate the potential of the concept, measuring the energy and time resolution and to test technical solutions for a complete ring. The prototype consists of an aluminum box filled with liquid xenon, with two arrays of SiPMs on opposite sides facing the xenon. A $\beta$+ emitter source generating 511-keV pairs of gammas is placed in a central port and the SiPMs record the scintillation light produced by the gamma interactions, allowing for the reconstruction of the position, the energy and the time of the interactions.