Exploring the Potential of a Cherenkov TOF PET Scanner: A Simulation Study

The detection of annihilation photons in positron emission tomography (PET) is based on scintillation light detection, but an interesting alternative is detection based on Cherenkov photons. Dense Cherenkov radiators provide an opportunity for high gamma detection efficiency—due to their high stopping power and photofraction—and excellent coincidence time resolution (CTR). However, because only a few tens of Cherenkov photons follow a gamma interaction in the radiator, the detection efficiency, and the energy resolution of a pure Cherenkov detector are an issue. This work explores gamma detection efficiency and CTR of PbF2-based detectors with different surface treatments and photodetectors covering one, two, or all crystal faces. Following the detector simulation analysis, we investigate the potential performance of a full-size Cherenkov PET scanner and quantitatively compare image quality with a commercial clinical PET scanner. We demonstrate that even though pure Cherenkov scanners have basically no energy resolution, the scatter fraction of around 50% is not prohibitively large, and images comparable to the state-of-the-art clinical PET scanner can be achieved due to improved efficiency and CTR attainable with PbF2.