Energy and spatial resolution for a continuous scintillation crystal - interface - continuous scintillation crystal system in Positron Emission Tomography(PET)

In this work we study the effects on the spatial resolution, energy resolution, and depth of interaction (DOI) determination, for a stack of two continuous scintillation crystals with an optical interface placed between them. The use of continuous crystals together with other features of the detector design has been reported to result in high quality of functional images because of the increased detection efficiency and the better intrinsic spatial resolution. However, there are some degrading factors associated with continuous crystals. These effects are more severe for thick scintillators required for PET detectors. With the present work we want to study if the use of crystal-interface (sandwich) system leads to a reduction in the effects of these degrading factors.