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AFTERGLOW Csl(Tl) SCINTILLATOR FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
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Email: GENTINE@RMDINC.COM
DESCRIPTION (Provided by Applicant): CsI doped with thallium is one of the most
important scintillators currently in use. In terms of conversion of ionizing
radiation to visible photons, it is the unquestioned leader in efficiency.
Additionally, its high density, high atomic number, excellent light transport
properties, high radiation resistance, easy availability, and low cost make it
suitable for a wide variety of applications such as medical imaging and high
energy physics.
The one property of CsI(Tl) that limits its use in fast or time resolved
applications is its afterglow. This causes problems in high count-rate
applications, reconstruction artifacts in CT usage, and problems of reduced
contrast and image blurring in high-speed imaging. If the afterglow in CsI(Tl)
is quenched, this material could be effectively used in all these applications
resulting in improved system performance with dramatic reduction in costs.
To address this issue we propose to undertake research with a goal of
minimizing the CsI(Tl) afterglow to a level where it can be suitably used for
many technologically and commercially important applications. Our approach will
involve detailed investigation of the scintillation processes in the CsI(TI)
and quenching the afterglow by filtering or by the addition of activators into
its lattice.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION:
The CsI (TI) scintillator is widely used in many commercial products such as digital
mammography systems, image intensifier tubes, intra-operative surgical probes, and
numerous other systems for medical and non-medical use. Reduction of afterglow will
allow the use of this scintillator in many as yet untapped applications such as medical
CT, stereo-tactic mammography, and other high speed imaging as well as counting
applications. The use of CsI(TI) in these systems is expected to substantially enhance the
performance of these modalities with dramatic reduction in their cost.
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *