Scintillator and photodetectors comparison for compact gamma cameras

The design of high resolution compact gamma cameras requires careful choice of scintillation crystal and photo-detector as well as their degree of pixellation. In this paper we evaluate the imaging properties of photo detectors for clinical imaging application. We compare the performances of two kinds of scintillators (CsI(Tl) and NaI(Tl)) coupled to PSPMT's of the Hamamatsu R5900 family (C8, C12, M16 and M64). To compare the imaging properties, the PSPMT's were optically coupled to CsI(Tl) and NaI (TI) scintillating arrays with pixel size of 2 × 2 mm2. Spatial resolution as well as energy resolution have been measured.