• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2005

Small animal PET using a dual layer phoswich detector has been developed to obtain high and uniform spatial resolution. In this study, a simple analytic model to optimize the lengths of a dual layer phoswich detector was derived and validated by Monte Carlo simulation. For a small animal PET scanner with a 10㎝ ring diameter, the optimal length of the phoswich detector consisting of various crystal materials, such as LSO and LuYAP, were calculated analytically and validated using GATE. The detector module consisted of 8×8 arrays of crystals, with each phoswich detector element having a 2㎜×2㎜ sensitive area. The total crystal length was fixed to 20㎜. The optimal lengths of the phoswich detector layers, as functions of the crystal materials and order, conveniently derived by the analytic equation, showed good agreement with those estimated by the time consuming simulation. The simple analytical model can be used for the fast and accurate design of an optimal phoswich detector for small animal PET to achieve high spatial resolution and uniformity.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.111-117
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• 2008

The new type phoswich detector consisting of the ZnS(Ag) and plastic scintillator for alpha/beta-ray simultaneous counting was developed for monitoring radiological contamination inside pipes. The detection performance was estimated using the PSD (pulse shape discrimination) method as a function of distance between the scintillator and radioactive source. The attenuation of particles traveling through a thin film for preventing the detector from being contaminated was experimentally estimated. It is concluded from our investigation that the phoswich detector developed can provide a sufficient alpha/beta-ray discrimination. The application of a thin film for preventing the detector from being contaminated was proven to be feasible.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.123-128
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• 2006

A small radiation detection system is necessary for the direct characterization of alpha/beta-ray contamination inside pipes generated during the decommission of a nuclear facility. In this work, the new type phoswich detector consisting of the ZnS(Ag) and plastic scintillator for ${\alpha}/{\beta}$ simultaneous counting was designed as part of a development of a equipment capable of monitoring radiological contamination inside pipes. The optimum counting conditions in dimensions of scintillator and a detection system were experimentally confirmed and a performance of alpha/beta-ray discrimination was evaluated. As a result, optimum conditions of a detector suitable for monitoring radiological contamination inside pipes and a feasibility of application to pipe-inside were confirmed.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.263-268
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• 2004

Using the Monte Carlo simulation, a study on the lion-proportionality of the prototype phoswich detector with $2'{\times}2'$ CSI(Tl) and plastic scintillator, which was made by KAERI, has been carried. The defector response functions (DRFs) calculated by simulations were compared with the experimental measurement on the $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$. To precisely simulate the DRF for the phoswich, the CSI(Tl) non-proportionality was calculated using the electron response and the simplified electron cascade sequence for treating the photoelectric absorption event. The resulting DRFs of $^{137}Cs\;and\;^{60}Co$ sources obtained by simulations were compared with experiments for verification. For $^{137}Cs$, gamma-ray responses simulated by MCNP5 are generally good agreement with the measured ones. But the DRF of $^{60}Co$ does not match well with the results of experiment in the energy region below second peak due to the coincidence effect of two gamma-rays (1.17 MeV and 1.33 MeV). Through the analysis of the non-proportionality of CsI(Tl) in the prototype phoswich, the improved DRFs considering non-proportionality were produced and the simulation results were verified using the experimental measurements. However, to more precisely reproduce the DRF for the phoswich, further studies in relation to the electron channeling effect and the Doppler broadening effect of a scintillator are still needed as well as considering that effect of the transfer contribution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.44-44
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• 2003

As a basic measurement tool in the areas of animal models of human disease, gene expression and therapy, and drug discovery and development, small animal PET imaging is being used increasingly. An ideal small animal PET should have high sensitivity and high and uniform resolution across the field of view to achieve high image quality. However, the combination of long narrow pixellated crystal array and small ring diameter of small animal PET leads to the degradation of spatial resolution for the source located at off center. This degradation of resolution can be improved by determining the depth of interaction (DOI) in the crystal and by taking into account the information in sorting the coincident events. Among a number of 001 identification schemes, dual layer phsowich detector has been widely investigated by many research groups due to its practicability and effectiveness on extracting DOI information. However, the effects of each crystal length composing dual layer phoswich detector on DOI measurements and image qualities were not fully characterized. In order to minimize the DOI effect, the length of each layer of phoswich detector should be optimized. The aim of this study was to perform simulations using a simulation tool, GATE to design the optimum lengths of crystals composing a dual layer phoswich detector. The simulated small PET system employed LSO front layer LuYAP back layer phoswich detector modules and the module consisted of 8${\times}$8 arrays of dual layer crystals with 2 mm ${\times}$ 2 mm sensitive area coupled to a Hamamatsu R7600 00 M64 PSPMT. Sensitivities and variation of radial resolutions were simulated by varying the length of LSO front layer from 0 to 10 mm while the total length (LSO + LuYAP) was fixed to 20 mm for 10 cm diameter ring scanner. The radial resolution uniformity was markedly improved by using DOI information. There existed the optimal lengths of crystal layers to minimize the variation of radial resolutions. In 10 cm ring scanner configuration, the radial resolution was kept below 3.4 mm over 8 cm FOV while the sensitivity was higher than 7.4% for LSO 5 mm : LuYAP 15 mm phoswich detector. In this study, the optimal length of dual layer phoswich detector was derived to achieve high and uniform radial resolution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.390-390
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• 2004

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-9
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• 2000

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute acquired the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory phantom for calibration of germanium detectors used for in vivo measurement of radionuclides deposited in human lungs. The manufacturer inscribed concentric circles as a phoswich detector positioning guides on the phantom's torso plate and its overlay plates, and provided the effective thickness of the chest wall for each plate measured at locations over the circles. However, since the germanium detectors are of different sizes, the areas considered for phoswich detectors were no. longer applicable for the locations of the germanium detectors on the phantom. Therefore, we re-evaluated the effective thickness of the phantom to determine if the manufacturer' s data are valid for germanium detectors in use for in vivo lung counting or if new values must be implemented. Differences no more than 3% in effective thickness were found between the germanium detector regions to be used at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and the phoswich detector regions prescribed by the manufacturer.

• 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.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2662-2669
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• 2023

For the precise measurements of special nuclear materials (SNM) including Pu and Am isotopes, we have used phoswich detector combination of two single crystal scintillators of Gd₃Ga₃Al₂O₁₂:Ce and CsI:Tl. High detection efficiency and sensitivity along with high figure of merit for the discrimination of these phoswich detectors ensures the detection and discrimination of thermal neutrons and gammas from spontaneous fission of Pu and other isotopes in presence of high gamma background. Using this detector, the low energy gammas, which is stopped completely in 1mm thick disc of GGAG, can be also discriminated from high energies gamma and shows linearity in wide range of sample quantities. By changing only the appropriate shielding, the similar setup was used for thermal neutron detection and shows a very good linearity over wide range. The quantity of a test sample was also calculated accurately by using the measured calibrated plot.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1083-1084
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• 2004