The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) are low-cost charged-particle detectors with good timing resolution and potentially good spatial resolution. Using RPC as gamma detector provides an opportunity for application in positron emission tomography (PET). In this work, we use GEANT4 simulation package to study various methods improving the detection efficiency of a realistic RPC-based PET model for 511keV photons, by adding more detection units, changing the thickness of each layer, choosing different converters and using multi-gaps RPC (MRPC) technique. Proper balance among these factors are discussed. It's found that although RPC with materials of high atomic number can reach a higher efficiency, they may contribute to a poor spatial resolution and higher background level.
Transforming the resistive plate chambers from charged-particle into gamma-quanta detectors opens the way towards their application as a basic element of a hybrid imaging system, which combines positron emission tomography (PET) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a single device and provides non- and minimally- invasive quantitative methods for diagnostics. To this end, we performed detailed investigations encompassing the whole chain from the annihilation of the positron in the body, through the conversion of the created photons into electrons and to the optimization of the electron yie…
The contribution of Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) to muon reconstruction in CMS has been studied on a sample of muons collected in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2011. Muon reconstruction is performed using the all-silicon inner tracker and with up to four stations of gas-ionization muon detectors. Drift Tubes and Cathode Strip Chambers detect muons in the barrel and endcap regions, respectively, and are complemented by the RPC system. Measured distributions of reconstructed hits in the RPCs crossed by muons from Z decays with a transverse momentum pT above 20 GeV/c …
A novel concept for position-sensitive thermal neutron detectors based on thin-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) lined with a neutron converter layer is presented and its feasibility is discussed. Several detector architectures implementing a stack of RPCs in multilayer and inclined geometries are introduced. The results of a Monte Carlo simulation study are presented demonstrating the effect of the main detector design parameters on the expected detection efficiency and spatial resolution.
A Monte Carlo simulation-based optimization of a multilayer 10B-RPC thermal neutron detector is performed targeting an increase in the counting rate capability while maintaining high (>50%) detection efficiency for thermal neutrons. The converter layer thicknesses of individual RPCs are optimized for several configurations of a detector containing a stack of 10 double gap RPCs. The results suggest that it is possible to reach a counting rate which is by a factor of eight higher in comparison to the rate of a detector with only one double-gap RPC. The effect of neutron scattering inside the det…
We propose an alternative approach for the detection of fast neutrons in the energy range from 10-4 to 5 MeV based on 10B-RPCs (hybrid double-gap Resistive Plate Chambers with 10B4C neutron converters) surrounded by a polyethylene moderator. The detection efficiency as a function of the neutron energy is obtained in Monte Carlo simulations performed with the Geant4 toolkit for several detector configurations. The thickness of the neutron converter is optimized for the maximum efficiency. The results show that for this type of detector it is possible to obtain an average detection efficiency la…
The measurement of the time of flight of the two 511 keV gammas recorded in coincidence in a PET scanner provides an effective way of reducing the random background and therefore increases the scanner sensitivity, provided that the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the gammas is sufficiently good. The best commercial PET-TOF system today (based in LYSO crystals and digital SiPMs), is the VEREOS of Philips, boasting a CRT of 316 ps (FWHM). In this paper we present a Monte Carlo investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner exploiting the scintillating properties of liquid xenon. We fi…
Monte-Carlo simulation of physical processes is an important tool for detector development as it allows to predict signal pulse amplitude and timing, time resolution, efficiency ... Yet despite the fact they are very common, full simulations for RPC-like detector are not widespread and often incomplete. They are often based on mathematical distributions that are not suited for this particular modelisation and over-simplify or neglect some important physical processes. We describe the main physical processes occurring inside a RPC when a charged particle goes through (ionisation, electron drift…
We present a study of the response of the highly granular Digital Hadronic Calorimeter with steel absorbers, the Fe-DHCAL, to positrons, muons, and pions with momenta ranging from 2 to 60 GeV/c. Developed in the context of the CALICE collaboration, this hadron calorimeter utilises Resistive Plate Chambers as active media, interspersed with steel absorber plates. With a transverse granularity of $1\,\times\,1\,$cm$^{2}$ and a longitudinal segmentation of 38 layers, the calorimeter counted 350,208 readout channels, each read out with single-bit resolution (digital readout). The data were recorde…
The Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) muon subsystem contributes significantly to the formation of the trigger decision and reconstruction of the muon trajectory parameters. Simulation of the RPC response is a crucial part of the entire CMS Monte Carlo software and directly influences the final physical results. An algorithm based on the parametrization of RPC efficiency, noise, cluster size and timing for every strip has been developed. Experimental data obtained from cosmic and proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV have been used for determination of the parameters. A dedicated validation…
New detector approaches in Positron Emission Tomography imaging will play an important role in reducing costs, lowering administered radiation doses, and improving overall performance. PETALO employs liquid xenon as the active scintillating medium and UV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers for scintillation readout. The scintillation time in liquid xenon is fast enough to register time-of-flight information for each detected coincidence, and sufficient scintillation is produced with low enough fluctuations to obtain good energy resolution. The present simulation study examines a full-body-sized…
In this paper we use detailed Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that liquid xenon (LXe) can be used to build a Cherenkov-based TOF-PET, with an intrinsic coincidence resolving time (CRT) in the vicinity of 10 ps. This extraordinary performance is due to three facts: a) the abundant emission of Cherenkov photons by liquid xenon; b) the fact that LXe is transparent to Cherenkov light; and c) the fact that the fastest photons in LXe have wavelengths higher than 300 nm, therefore making it possible to separate the detection of scintillation and Cherenkov light. The CRT in a Cherenkov LXe TOF-…
The performance of all subsystems of the CMS muon detector has been studied by using a sample of proton--proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected at the LHC in 2010 that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 40 inverse picobarns. The measured distributions of the major operational parameters of the drift tube (DT), cathode strip chamber (CSC), and resistive plate chamber (RPC) systems met the design specifications. The spatial resolution per chamber was 80-120 micrometers in the DTs, 40-150 micrometers in the CSCs, and 0.8-1.2 centimeters in the RPCs. The time reso…
Liquid xenon offers several features, which make it suitable for applications in nuclear medicine, such as high scintillation yield and fast scintillation decay time. Moreover, being a continuous medium with a uniform response, liquid xenon allows one to avoid most of the geometrical distortions of conventional detectors based on scintillating crystals. In this paper, we describe how these properties have motivated the development of a novel concept for positron emission tomography scanners with Time-Of-Flight measurement, which combines a liquid xenon scintillating volume and silicon photomul…
Aim: Investigate whether a time walk assessment derived from crystal light sharing and multi-photon time stamps can improved the TOF resolution. Method: Monte Carlo simulations were performed for SiPM (FBK-NUV-HD) coupled to conventional 4x4 mm2 pixelated LSO (0.2%Ca:Ce ) and also coupled to 8x4 mm2 pixelated LSO in which a triangular optical window allows light sharing between the two 4x4 mm2 sub-pixels depending on the DOI. A time walk estimation was modelled as a DOI dependent weighted sum of the time differences within the photons detection sequence. The DOI dependent weights were optimize…
The fast scintillation decay time and the high scintillation yield of liquid xenon makes it an appropriate material for nuclear medicine. Moreover, being a continuous medium with a uniform response, liquid xenon allows one to avoid most of the geometrical distortions of conventional detectors based on scintillating crystals. In this paper, we describe how these properties have motivated the development of a novel concept for positron emission tomography scanners with Time-Of-Flight measurement, which uses liquid xenon as a scintillating material and silicon photomultipliers as sensors. Monte C…
A novel PET detector consisting of strips of polymer scintillators is being developed by the J-PET Collaboration. The map of efficiency and the map of geometrical acceptance of the 2-strip J-PET scanner are presented. Map of efficiency was determined using the Monte Carlo simulation software GATE based on GEANT4. Both maps were compared using method based on the chi2 test.
The low cost and high resolution gas-based Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPC) opens a new possibility to find an efficient alternative detector for Time of Flight (TOF) based Positron Emission Tomography, where the sensitivity of the system depends largely on the time resolution of the detector. Suitable converters can be used to increase the efficiency of detection of photons from annihilation. In this work, we perform a detailed GEANT4 simulation to optimize the converter thickness thereby improving the efficiency of photon conversion. Also we have developed a Monte Carlo based simulat…
Presice measurements of the photons conversion points in the scintillators are required to achieve a high spatial resolution of the PET system. I have developed a new method of reconstruction of the depth-of-interaction information for PET detectors with dual-side readout. The depth-of-interaction and energy resolutions from Monte-Carlo simulations are presented in this paper. The new method allows to reach depth-of-interaction resolution that is about 0.4~mm ($σ$) [or about 1.0~mm (FWHM)] for 10-mm long LYSO scintillator. If the precise measurement of the primary photon energy is not a high p…
Organ-specific, targeted Field-of-View (FoV) Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) inserts are viable solutions for a number of imaging tasks where whole-body PET/MRI systems lack the necessary sensitivity and resolution. To meet the required PET detector performance of these systems, high count-rates and effective spatial resolutions on the order of a few mm, a novel two-axis patterned reflector foil pixelated scintillator crystal array design is developed and its proof-of-concept illustrated in-silico with the Monte Carlo radiation transport modelling toolkit Ge…
We are investigating a prototype virtual pinhole positron emission tomography (VP-PET) system for small animal imaging applications. The PET detector modules were made up of 1.3 mm lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) arrays, and the insert detectors consists of 0.6 mm pixelated Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe). To validate the imaging experiment, we conducted a Monte Carlo simulation for the VP-PET system in Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography (GATE). For a point source of Na-22 with 0.5 mm diameter, the filtered back-projection (FBP) algorithm reconstructed PET image shows a resolu…
In the last few years our group have focused on developing various designs of spark-protected micropattern gaseous detectors featuring resistive electrodes instead of the traditional metallic ones: resistive microstrip counters, resistive GEM, resistive MICROMEGAS. These detectors combine in one design the best features of RPCs (spark-protection) and micropattern detectors (a high position resolution). In this paper we report the progress so far made in developing other types of resistive micropattern detectors: a microdot-microhole detector and a microgap-microstrip detector. The former detec…
Modern PET systems reach a spatial resolution of 3-10 mm. A disadvantage of this technique is the diffusion of the positron before its decay with a typical range of ca. 1 mm (depending on its energy). This motion and Compton scattering of the 511 keV photons within the patient limit the performance of PET. We present a nuclear medical imaging technique, able to reach submillimeter spatial resolution in 3 dimensions with a reduced activity application compared to conventional PET. This 'gamma-PET' technique draws on specific positron sources simultaneously emitting an additional photon with the…
This work reports on a new reconstruction algorithm allowing to reconstruct the decays of ortho-positronium atoms into three photons using the places and times of photons recorded in the detector. The method is based on trilateration and allows for a simultaneous reconstruction of both location and time of the decay. Results of resolution tests of the new reconstruction in the J-PET detector based on Monte Carlo simulations are presented, which yield a spatial resolution at the level of 2 cm (FWHM) for X and Y and at the level of 1 cm (FWHM) for Z available with the present resolution of J-PET…
CRYSP: a Total-Body PET based on cryogenic cesium iodide crystals
Donostia International Physics Center（多诺斯蒂亚国际物理中心）；Ikerbasque (Basque Foundation for Science)（伊克拉巴斯基（巴斯克科学基金会））；Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M), Centro Mixto CSIC - Universitat Politècnica de València（分子成像仪器研究所（I3M），CSIC-瓦伦西亚理工大学联合中心）；Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)（巴斯克大学）；Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), CSIC & Universitat de València（粒子物理研究所（IFIC），CSIC与瓦伦西亚大学）
$Objective$. Obtaining the intrinsic dose distributions in particle therapy is a challenging problem that needs to be addressed by imaging algorithms to take advantage of secondary particle detectors. In this work, we investigate the utility of deep learning methods for achieving direct mapping from detector data to the intrinsic dose distribution. $Approach$. We performed Monte Carlo simulations using GATE/Geant4 10.4 simulation toolkits to generate a dataset using human CT phantom irradiated with high-energy protons and imaged with compact in-beam PET for realistic beam delivery in a single-…
The purpose of the presented investigations is to design, construct and establish the characteristic performance of the Jagiellonian Positron Emission Mammography(J-PEM), being designed for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Its construction is based on a novel idea of PET tomography based on plastic scintillators and wavelength shifter (WLS) and a new concept of positronium imaging. We have prepared a simulation program based on Monte Carlo methods for optimizing the geometry and material of the J-PEM prototype. Here we present the first results from the simulations and a brief rev…
