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A Portable Three-Layer Compton Camera for Wide-Energy-Range Gamma-ray Imaging: Design, Simulation and Preliminary Testing.
- Source :
- Sensors (14248220); Nov2023, Vol. 23 Issue 21, p8951, 19p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- (1) Background: The imaging energy range of a typical Compton camera is limited due to the fact that scattered gamma photons are seldom fully absorbed when the incident energies are above 3 MeV. Further improving the upper energy limit of gamma-ray imaging has important application significance in the active interrogation of special nuclear materials and chemical warfare agents, as well as range verification of proton therapy. (2) Methods: To realize gamma-ray imaging in a wide energy range of 0.3~7 MeV, a principle prototype, named a portable three-layer Compton camera, is developed using the scintillation detector that consists of an silicon photomultiplier array coupled with a Gd<subscript>3</subscript>Al<subscript>2</subscript>Ga<subscript>3</subscript>O<subscript>12</subscript>:Ce pixelated scintillator array. Implemented in a list-mode maximum likelihood expectation maximization algorithm, a far-field energy-domain imaging method based on the two interaction events is applied to estimate the initial energy and spatial distribution of gamma-ray sources. The simulation model of the detectors is established based on the Monte Carlo simulation toolkit Geant4. The reconstructed images of a <superscript>133</superscript>Ba, a <superscript>137</superscript>Cs and a <superscript>60</superscript>Co point-like sources have been successfully obtained with our prototype in laboratory tests and compared with simulation studies. (3) Results: The proportion of effective imaging events accounts for about 2%, which allows our prototype to realize the reconstruction of the distribution of a 0.05 μSv/h <superscript>137</superscript>Cs source in 10 s. The angular resolution for resolving two <superscript>137</superscript>Cs point-like sources is 15°. Additional simulated imaging of the 6.13 MeV gamma-rays from 14.1 MeV neutron scattering with water preliminarily demonstrates the imaging capability for high incident energy. (4) Conclusions: We conclude that the prototype has a good imaging performance in a wide energy range (0.3~7 MeV), which shows potential in several MeV gamma-ray imaging applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14248220
- Volume :
- 23
- Issue :
- 21
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Sensors (14248220)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 173565599
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/s23218951