Compton Scatter in Germanium and Its Effect on Imaging with Gamma-Ray Position-Sensitive Detectors

The spatial spread due to Compton scatter in Ge was measured to study the reduction in image contrast and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) resulting from erroneous readout in Ge position-sensitive detectors. The step response revealing this spread was obtained by scanning with a 122 keV γ-ray beam across a boundary of two sectors of a slotted coaxial Ge(Li) detector that is 40 mm diameter by 22 mm long. The derived line-spread function at 140 keV (99mTc) exhibits much shorter but thicker tails than those due to scatter in tissue as observed with a NaI detector through 5.5 cm of scattering material. Convolutions of rectangular profiles of voids with the Ge(Li) line-spread function show marked deterioration in contrast for voids less than 10 mm across, which in turn results in even greater deterioration of the S/N. As a result, the contrast for voids in Ge images is only 20-30% higher than that in NaI and the S/N is only comparable for equal detector areas. The degradation in image contrast due to scatter in Ge detectors can be greatly reduced by either using thin detectors (~5 mm), where scatter virtually does not exist, or by using thicker detectors and rejecting scatter electronically. To reduce the effects of scatter on the S/N as well as on contrast, the erroneous position readouts must actually be corrected.