Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET
Abstract The Cherenkov emission in inorganic crystal scintillators has been shown to dramatically improve time resolution for time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) for in slow scintillators with a high refractive index such as bismuth germanium oxide (BGO). This is due to the faster...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-05-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01396-2 |
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| author | Baharak Mehrdel Nicolaus Kratochwil Youngho Seo Jarek Glodo Pijush Bhattacharya Gerard Ariño-Estrada Javier Caravaca |
| author_facet | Baharak Mehrdel Nicolaus Kratochwil Youngho Seo Jarek Glodo Pijush Bhattacharya Gerard Ariño-Estrada Javier Caravaca |
| author_sort | Baharak Mehrdel |
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| description | Abstract The Cherenkov emission in inorganic crystal scintillators has been shown to dramatically improve time resolution for time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) for in slow scintillators with a high refractive index such as bismuth germanium oxide (BGO). This is due to the faster nature of the Cherenkov emission (tens of picoseconds) with respect to scintillation (nanosecond). However, the presence of slower scintillation light and the inability of existing detectors to distinguish between Cherenkov and scintillation make it difficult for BGO to achieve a good CTR for all the detected coincidence events. In this paper, we exploit the difference between the Cherenkov and scintillation emission spectra and use dichroic filters to enhance the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio. Dichroic filters transmit or reflect photons based on their wavelength, with a photon attenuation lower than 10%. We investigate several shortpass and longpass dichroic filters in a single-photon configuration with BGO and find the optimal filter that maximizes the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio. We demonstrate that we can enhance the ratio of Cherenkov to scintillation photons by a factor of 2.17 ± 0.38 by employing a shortpass dichroic filter with a cut-off wavelength of 450 nm for BGO, and by a factor of 2.87 ± 0.40 using a longpass dichroic filter with a cut-on wavelength of 550 nm for iodine/beryllium-doped thallium chloride. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-ab75cd41a1fe454bb546f96d35af2d402025-08-20T03:16:33ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-05-0115111410.1038/s41598-025-01396-2Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PETBaharak Mehrdel0Nicolaus Kratochwil1Youngho Seo2Jarek Glodo3Pijush Bhattacharya4Gerard Ariño-Estrada5Javier Caravaca6Department of Radiology and Biomedical imaging, University of California San FranciscoDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at DavisDepartment of Radiology and Biomedical imaging, University of California San FranciscoRadiation Monitoring Devices, IncRadiation Monitoring Devices, IncDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at DavisDepartment of Radiology and Biomedical imaging, University of California San FranciscoAbstract The Cherenkov emission in inorganic crystal scintillators has been shown to dramatically improve time resolution for time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) for in slow scintillators with a high refractive index such as bismuth germanium oxide (BGO). This is due to the faster nature of the Cherenkov emission (tens of picoseconds) with respect to scintillation (nanosecond). However, the presence of slower scintillation light and the inability of existing detectors to distinguish between Cherenkov and scintillation make it difficult for BGO to achieve a good CTR for all the detected coincidence events. In this paper, we exploit the difference between the Cherenkov and scintillation emission spectra and use dichroic filters to enhance the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio. Dichroic filters transmit or reflect photons based on their wavelength, with a photon attenuation lower than 10%. We investigate several shortpass and longpass dichroic filters in a single-photon configuration with BGO and find the optimal filter that maximizes the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio. We demonstrate that we can enhance the ratio of Cherenkov to scintillation photons by a factor of 2.17 ± 0.38 by employing a shortpass dichroic filter with a cut-off wavelength of 450 nm for BGO, and by a factor of 2.87 ± 0.40 using a longpass dichroic filter with a cut-on wavelength of 550 nm for iodine/beryllium-doped thallium chloride.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01396-2BGOTlClCherenkov photonsDichroic filtersTime of flight positron emission tomography |
| spellingShingle | Baharak Mehrdel Nicolaus Kratochwil Youngho Seo Jarek Glodo Pijush Bhattacharya Gerard Ariño-Estrada Javier Caravaca Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET Scientific Reports BGO TlCl Cherenkov photons Dichroic filters Time of flight positron emission tomography |
| title | Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET |
| title_full | Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET |
| title_fullStr | Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET |
| title_short | Enhancing the Cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in BGO and TlCl for TOF-PET |
| title_sort | enhancing the cherenkov over scintillation ratio using dichroic filters in bgo and tlcl for tof pet |
| topic | BGO TlCl Cherenkov photons Dichroic filters Time of flight positron emission tomography |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01396-2 |
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