Study of UT glasses for pixel identification performance in multi-anode PMT-based detectors for PET

The pixel identification capability is a common problem of detector systems consisting of scintillating matrices coupled to photodetectors. In positron emission tomography (PET) systems, a better pixel identification leads directly to an improvement of the spatial resolution of the system. To gain pixel identification efficiency especially at the peripheral active area, ultra-transmitting (UT) glasses can be inserted between the crystal and PMT array in order to promote light spread and avoid overlap of responses due to the enhanced light spread. Measurements with three different UT glass thicknesses ( d = 0.7 , 1.0 and 1.35 mm) have been performed in order to study their impact on pixel identification properties compared to direct coupling.