Search for Ionization-Induced Modulation of Light Polarization for a New Direction to Improve Time Resolution of PET

Abstract

In this work, we study whether ionizing radiation can induce a small component of non-polarized light in a crosspolarizer setup, where usually no light transmission would occur. Such ionization-induced modulation of polarization occurs at a sub-picosecond time scale, which could be exploited for fast timing applications, such as time of flight in positron emission tomography. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach using ionization produced from a laser diode in high Z, high-density crystals. Results indicate that the signal strength, quantified by induced cross-polarized light due to ionization from 20 MHz UV pulses in BSO is 10x higher than that in CdTe.

Meeting Name

2019 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, NSS/MIC 2019 (2019: Oct. 26-Nov. 2, Manchester, UK)

Department(s)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Comments

This work was supported by NIH grant (5R01EB023903-02).

Keywords and Phrases

Coincidence Time Resolution; Positron Emission Tomography; Scintillation Detectors; Semiconductor Detectors

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-172814164-0

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Nov 2019

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