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Liquid xenon scintillators for imaging of positron emitters
Author(s) -
Lavoie Louis
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.594289
Subject(s) - xenon , scintillation , scintillator , positron , physics , positron emission tomography , positron emission , scintillation counter , liquid scintillation counting , detector , optics , medical physics , gamma ray , nuclear medicine , nuclear physics , radiochemistry , tomography , chemistry , medicine , electron
The current understanding of xenon scintillation physics is summarized and keyed to the use of xenon as a γ‐ray detector in medical radioisotope imaging systems. Liquid xenon has a short scintillation pulse (∼10 −8 sec) and high γ‐ray absorption and scintillation efficiencies. The fast pulse may facilitate imaging in vivo distributions of hot positron sources and allow recovery of additional spatial information by time‐of‐flight techniques. We begin by describing our own study of the feasibility of making a practical positron scanning system, and consider the problems of scintillation decay time, linearity, efficiency, purity, and electric‐field amplitifcation. The prospects for a practical instrument are considered.