Initial Results of a Monolithic Detector with Pyramid Shaped Reflectors in PET

Positron emission tomography (PET) is an important diagnostic and research tool in nuclear medicine. In commercial and research PET scanners, detectors are traditionally built using crystal arrays coupled to various photosensor configurations, typically based on photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Since new smaller size photosensors such as avalanche photodiodes (APD) and silicon photomultipliers (Si-PMT) have been introduced, potential improvements can be made on detector fabrication and overall imaging performance of the design. In this study, monolithic detectors based on LSO crystals were investigated. Preliminary performance of pyramid shaped reflectors were tested against other reflectors. Light collection performance of those detectors were also measured.