• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.214-225
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• 2022

Background: The conventional cerium-doped Gd₂Al₂Ga₃O₁₂ (GAGG(Ce)) scintillator-based gamma-ray imager has a bulky detector, which can lead to incorrect positioning of the gammaray source if the shielding against background radiation is not appropriately designed. In addition, portability is important in complex environments such as inside nuclear power plants, yet existing gamma-ray imager based on a tungsten mask tends to be weighty and therefore difficult to handle. Motivated by the need to develop a system that is not sensitive to background radiation and is portable, we changed the material of the scintillator and the coded aperture. Materials and Methods: The existing GAGG(Ce) was replaced with Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO), a scintillator with high gamma-ray detection efficiency but low energy resolution, and replaced the tungsten (W) used in the existing coded aperture with lead (Pb). Each BGO scintillator is pixelated with 144 elements (12 × 12), and each pixel has an area of 4 mm × 4 mm and the scintillator thickness ranges from 5 to 20 mm (5, 10, and 20 mm). A coded aperture consisting of Pb with a thickness of 20 mm was applied to the BGO scintillators of all thicknesses. Results and Discussion: Spectroscopic characterization, imaging performance, and image quality evaluation revealed the 10 mm-thick BGO scintillators enabled the portable gamma-ray imager to deliver optimal performance. Although its performance is slightly inferior to that of existing GAGG(Ce)-based gamma-ray imager, the results confirmed that the manufacturing cost and the system's overall weight can be reduced. Conclusion: Despite the spectral characteristics, imaging system performance, and image quality is slightly lower than that of GAGG(Ce), the results show that BGO scintillators are preferable for gamma-ray imaging systems in terms of cost and ease of deployment, and the proposed design is well worth applying to systems intended for use in areas that do not require high precision.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.83-86
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• 2009

The single crystal scintillator of bismuth germinate ($Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}$:BGO) was successfully grown by the conventional Czochraski technique. The characteristics of the grown BGO were evaluated and presented on the excitation, emission responses and energy spectra of the $\gamma$-rays from $^{241}Am$, $^{133}Ba$, $^{57}Co$, $^{22}Na$, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{54}Mn$ radio-isotopes. The energy resolution of grown BGO, $\Delta$E/E, was estimated to be 12.1% at 662 keV of $\gamma$-ray for $^{137}Cs$ nuclide. Compared to the commercial BGO crystal, we confirmed that the grown BGO has a good performance and is comparable to reference one.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 1997

Bismuth germanate crystals well known as scintillator were grown by Czochralski method. In order to understand a mechanism of radiation resistance in Eu-doped BGO, we measured radiation induced-absorption spectra, excitation spectra, emission spectra and luminescence lifetimes of BGO crystals. We found that the charge transfer state of $Eu^{3+}$ ion is to play a key role to enhance the radiation resistance in BGO crystal. The $^{5}D_{0}$ emission of $Eu^{3+}$ ions that is not suitable for the radiation detectors due to a long decay time was found to be increased with increasing europium concentration. In the BGO crystal doped with 0.1 mole%, the density of radiation induced color centers was reduced about twenty times and the light output of $^{5}D_{0}$ was negligible by comparing to that of BGO.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.222-228
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• 2016

Background: We are developing a small size dosimeter for dose estimation in particle therapies. The developed dosimeter is an optical fiber based dosimeter mounting an radiation induced luminescence material, such as an OSL or a scintillator, at a tip. These materials generally suffer from the quenching effect under high LET particle irradiation. Materials and Methods: We fabricated two types of the small size dosimeters. They used an OSL material Eu:BaFBr and a BGO scintillator. Carbon ions were irradiated into the fabricated dosimeters at Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). The small size dosimeters were set behind the water equivalent acrylic phantom. Bragg peak was observed by changing the phantom thickness. An ion chamber was also placed near the small size dosimeters as a reference. Results and Discussion: Eu:BaFBr and BGO dosimeters showed a Bragg peak at the same thickness as the ion chamber. Under high LET particle irradiation, the response of the luminescence-based small size dosimeters deteriorated compared with that of the ion chamber due to the quenching effect. We confirmed the luminescence efficiency of Eu:BaFBr and BGO decrease with the LET. The reduction coefficient of luminescence efficiency was different between the BGO and the Eu:BaFBr. The LET can be determined from the luminescence ratio between Eu:BaFBr and BGO, and the dosimeter response can be corrected. Conclusion: We evaluated the LET dependence of the luminescence efficiency of the BGO and Eu:BaFBr as the quenching effect. We propose and discuss the correction of the quenching effect using the signal intensity ratio of the both materials. Although the correction precision is not sufficient, feasibility of the proposed correction method is proved through basic experiments.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.251-256
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• 2004

CsI(Tl), $CdWO_4(CWO),\;Bi_4Ge_3O_{12}(BGO)\;and\;Gd_2SiO_5:Ce(GSO)$ scintillators were studied to manufacture a phoswich detector. The maximum wavelengths of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators are 550 nm, 475 nm, 490 nm and 440 nm for the radioluminescence, and the absolute light outputs of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators are 54890 phonon/MeV, 17762 phonon/MeV, 8322 phonon/MeV and 8932 phonon/MeV with a neutral filter, and the decay time of the CsI(Tl), CWO, BGO and GSO scintillators is $1.3{\mu}s,\;8.17{\mu}s$, 213 ns and 37 ns by a single photon method. The phoswich detector which was manufactured with plastic and CsI(Tl) scintillators could separate the ${\beta}$ particle and ${\gamma}$ ray. The phoswich detector could also measure the pulse height spectra of the ${\beta}$ particle and ${\gamma}$ ray by a PSD method.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.500-507
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• 2002

By this study, on-line real-time radiometric system was developed using a 64 channels linear array of solid state detectors to measure wall thickness of insulated piping system. This system uses an Ir-192 as a gamma ray source and detector is composed of BGO scintillator and photodiode. Ir-192 gamma ray source and linear detector array mounted on a computer controlled robotic crawler. The Ir-192 gamma ray source is located on one side of the piping components and the detector array on the other side. The individual detectors of the detector array measure the intensity of the gamma rays after passing through the walls and the insulation of the piping component under measurement. The output of the detector array is amplified by amplifier and transmitted to the computer through cable. This system collects and analyses the data from the detector array in real-time as the crawler travels over the piping system. The maximum measurable length of pipe is 120cm/min. in the case of 1mm scanning interval.

• 연구논문집
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• s.32
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• pp.65-76
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• 2002

The intensity of x-ray or gamma-ray is attenuated according to density and thickness of the transmitted medium. In this study, by using this principle, on-line real-time radiometric system was developed using a 128 channels linear array of solid state detectors to measure wall thickness of insulated piping system. This system uses a Ir-192 as a gamma ray source and detector is composed of BGO scintillator and photodiode. Ir-192 gamma ray source and linear detector array mounted on a computer controlled robotic crawler. The Ir-192 gamma ray source is located on one side of the piping components and the detector array on the other side. The individual detectors of the detector array measure the intensity of the gamma rays after passing through the walls and the insulation of the piping component under measurement. The output of the detector array is amplified by amplifier and transmitted to the computer. This system collects and analyses the data from the detector array in real-time. The maximum measurable length of pipe is 120cm/mm. in the case of 1mm scanning interval.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.125-132
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• 2006

The PET/CT scanner is an evolution in image technology. The two modalities are complementary with CT and PET images. The PET scan images are well known as low resolution anatomic landmak, but such problems may help with interpretation detailed anatomic framework such as that provided by CT scan. PET/CT offers some advantages-improved lesion localization and identification, more accurate tumor staging. etc. Conventional PET employs tranmission scan require around 4 min./bed position and 30 min. for whole body scan. But PET/CT scanner can reduced by 50% in whole body scan. Especially nowadays PET scanner LSO scintillator-based from BGO without septa and operate in 3-D acquisition mode with multidetectors CT. PET/CT scanner fusion problems solved through hardware rather than software. Such device provides with the capability to acquire accurately aligned anatomic and functional images from single scan. It is very important to effective detection from gamma ray source in PETdetector. And can be offer high quality diagnostic images. So we have study about detection processing of PET detector and high quality imaging process.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2006

The PET scanner can detect the photon pair arriving from the source in phantom. The number of light photons released by the crystal(scintillator-BGO or LSO). In recent scintillation crystals in block structures were incorporated into full ring systems, and their resulted marked improvement in spatial resolution and increase in a sensitivity to annihilations. The uniformity of the crystal sensitivity is very important to makes correct information of abnormal states in organs. These factors influenced by the dection efficiency of the scintillators. We have study about the uniformity of crystals to the annihilation, And study about the standard deviation to average counts. The relative standard deviation in central detector groups more uniformed than circumferenced detector groups. It is caused detected quanta of gamma ray by the geometrical factors of PET detector. PET cameras are available with different geometric arrangement and several parallel rings oriented in the axial direction. The center groups from 7th to 40th groups are comparatively uniform and sensitive. But at the circumferenced detectors decreased the sensitivity and uniformity.