CZT gamma camera with pinhole collimator: Spectral measurements

To date, CZT has been investigated for a variety of nuclear imaging applications using mostly parallel hole collimators. The image quality realized has evolved to make these configurations competitive with the mature conventional configurations using scintillators such as NaI. However the full potential of CZT detectors is still evolving. In our investigations we have found that there are significant additional advantages of the combination of monolithic CZT detectors with pinhole collimators over the known advantages of CZT detectors by themselves. In particular we show here the improved energy response spectrum for a selection of common nuclear medicine isotopes. The improved energy resolution is important to quality control, image fidelity and stability, and new applications such as dual isotope imaging.