Time of Flight (TOF) - Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging using 5-gap Glass Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs)

Abstract

Time of Flight (TOF) technique is used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging worldwide. PET imaging technique, is based on two back to back photons created by the annihilation of positron (e+) (generated by FDG (radio-tracer) inside the patient's blood stream) with electron. The scintillator based detectors currently in use are very costly, so to minimise the cost, we are developing a different type of detector called Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chamber (MRPCs). MRPCs are very low cost detectors and can be fabricated over large areas having time resolution of ~10 ps. Hence they can be a suitable replacement to scintillators for PET imaging. In the current work, we have fabricated and characterised two identical (18 cm x 18 cm) 5- gap glass based MRPCs. The fabricated MRPCs were kept one over the other separated by a distance of 40cm. In our experiment, the source (Na-22) position was shifted physically by ~12 cm and the data from MRPCs nearly matched with the same. This proves the suitability of the fabricated MRPCs for TOF measurements.