Direct gamma-ray detection with strip TlBr detectors for nuclear medicine applications

This work reports on the characterization of TlBr detectors for use in nuclear medicine. Several different detectors have been used to assess the potential performance of the material. A 12 mm thick detector with a Frisch collar has been used to achieve an energy resolution of 3.5% at 511 keV and 2.3% at 662 keV. A 0.4 mm thick detector biased at 200 V has been operated in coincidence with an LSO crystal coupled to a PMT and a timing resolution of 24 ns FWHM has been obtained by gating the energy of the events. A strip TlBr detector with 0.4 mm width strips and 0.1 mm inter-strip separation has been used to measure the intrinsic spatial resolution to the level of 1 mm (a result limited by the setup geometry). The results show promising results of TlBr detectors for nuclear medicine applications.