The Use of Retro-Reflective Tape for Improving Spatial Resolution of Scintillation Detectors

D.P. McElroy, S.C. Huang, and E.J. Hoffman

UCLA School of Medicine, Division of Nuclear Medicine and Biophysics, Los Angeles CA 90095 USA

Abstract
We are investigating the use of a retro-reflective tape (3M Industries), which reflects light along a line parallel to the incident light. as a substitute for Tetlon tape or other reflective material used with scintillation crystals. We expect this retroreflective property to improve spatial resolution in large continuous crystals relative to that seen with Teflon when the reflective tape is coupled to the front (radiation incident) side of the crystal. Three CsI(TI) crystals were evaluated of dimensions 5.8 cm x 5.6 cm x 5 mm, 6 cm x 6 cm x 12 mm, and 6 cm x 6 cm x 20 mm by stepping a collimated y 9 m T ~ source across the crystal face. Images were taken with the crystal coupled to a PSPMT. Energy resolution and light collection were similar in both the reflector and Teflon Figure 1. Reflection of light inside a scintillation c&ai with smooth situations. Average spatial resolution in the linear (central) reflecting front surface. The gamma radiation is shown incident from region of the 5 mm thick crystal with black tape wrapped the top. The bottom of the crystal is shown coupled to an array of around the sides was measured to be 3.6 f 0.3 mm and 5.0 ? PMTs. 0.3 mm for the Retro Reflective tape and the Teflon tape, respectively. One way to solve the problem of reflected light would be to coat the surface with black material, which would absorb all incident light. This would severely compromise I. INTRODUCTION light collection and energy resolution, however, and is not a One of the most important parameters used to assess viable solution. We propose the use of a Retro Reflective tape scintillation camera performance is spatial resolution [ 11. The (3M Industries) as a treatment for the front surface of overall spatial resolution of a particular imaging system scintillation crystals to be used with continuous crystal depends in part on both the collimator in use and the intrinsic imaging systems. This tape is similar to that seen in bicycle spatial resolution of the system. For continuous scintillation reflectors and road signs, and has the property that incident crystal gamma cameras, the intrinsic spatial resolution is light is reflected straight back along the line of incidence. primarily dependent on the Photo Multiplier Tubes (PMTs) or Thus a road sign, for example, will appear to be bright when a Position Sensitive Photo Multiplier Tubes (PSPMTs) being car's headlights hit it at any angle. The use of Retro used, and the scintillation crystal [2]. In particular, the Reflective tape should reduce light spread due to reflection of thickness of the crystal influences intrinsic spatial resolution light off of the front crystal at an angle equal to the angle of due to the spread of light within the crystal [l]. A single incidence and thus improve intrinsic spatial resolution of photon interacting in a crystal will, produce scintillation light, continuous crystal scintillation cameras (Figure 2). The which is emitted isotropically from the point of interaction [l]. concept of using a reflector of this type in this application has By the time the scintillation light reaches the Photocathode of been proposed before [ 3 ] , but to our knowledge its potential the PMT it will have spread by an amount that is dependent on advantage and cost effectiveness has never been the depth of interaction of the scintillation event and the experimentally verified. thickness of the crystal. In addition, light that is initially emitted away from the Photocathode will be reflected off of the opposite surface. Teflon tape or other reflector materials are commonly used to coat this surface in order to improve light collection. Such a surface\.treatment will compromise spatial resolution, however, as light will reflect back at an angle equal to the angle of incidence (assuming a polished , * " * ~A i % - A y " reflecting surface), resulting in further spreading by the time the light reaches the Photocathode,(Figure 1). This blurring of the point of interaction leads directly to degradation of intrinsic spatial resolution.

'r'

2 7 ;

Figure 2. Reflection of light inside a scintillation crystal with Retro Reflective front surface. Dotted lines indicated reflected light rays, while solid lines indicate primary, unretlected light rays.

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0-7803-6503-8/01/$10.002001 IEE

The technique we propose promises to be extremely inexpensive and easy to implement. The use of Retro Reflective tape may prove to be particularly advantageous with the use of dedicated, compact continuous crystal scintillation cameras. These cameras are designed for imaging areas of the body that are difficult to access with standard gamma cameras, such as the breast or axillary lymph node area, and are optimized to have very high spatial resolution and sensitivity. ' High spatial resolution is a crucial characteristic of these cameras [4] [5, 61. In breast imaging, for example, they must be able to image small, non-palpable tumors less than 6 mm in diameter. Larger cameras may also benefit from the use of Retro Reflective tape because they currently have poor spatial resolution compared to other nuclear medicine imaging modalities such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

window centered on the photopeak. A profile was then taken of each image and fitted to a gaiissian function. The centroid of each image (units of pixels) was plotted vs. the actual slit position to give a pixel per mm calibration factor. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of each slit image (units of pixels) was then multiplied by the calibration factor to give the spatial resolution in mm. This. process was repeated three times for three different slit image profiles (profile locations were kept constant for each successive slit image). The overall intrinsic spatial resolution, then, for one crystal configuration was taken to be the average of the FWHM measurements for each slit image, in each orthogonal direction, for each profile location. For six slit images along each direction this would correspond to 36 independent resolution measurements for one particular crystal configuration. The process was repeated for each possible combination of crystal surface treatments.

11. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The Retro Reflective tape we are testing consists of an array of small square corner elements of approximate width 0.1 mm (Figure 3). Light incident on the surface of the tape will be reflected internally in such a way that the reflected light emerges parallel to the incident ray. The tape is 0.5 mm thick and 2.54 cm wide. To cover the entire surface of the crystal, strips of tape had to be cut and placed adjacent to one another. In this study we compared the intrinsic spatial resolution obtained using the Retro Reflective tape to that obtained using Teflon tape as a reflector of light. We used CsI(TI) scintillation crystals for the experiment because they are relatively non-hygroscopic and thus we could have direct access to the crystals. NaI(TI), for example, must be encased in aluminum and glass because of its hygroscopic nature and thus does not allow for changing surface treatments. We
I

B. Energy Resolution Measurements

Energy resolution was also measured for each crystal configuration. Light output and energy resolution are also important parameters of an imaging system, and one must often balance the tradeoff between spatial resolution and light collection, for example. Measuring how the energy resolution changes as the intrinsic spatial resolution changes will be of help in deciding whether or not the potential gains in spatial resolution are worth the potential losses in energy resolution. Energy resolution was measured by irradiating a 3 mm diameter hole in 6 mm thick lead with ""'Tc. Light collection efficiency and gain are variable across the face of a PSPMT so we only measured the energy resolution for a small region near the center of the tube. Energy resolution is simply the FWHM of the photopeak in the energy spectrum divided by the centroid position of the photopeak, expressed as percentage.

a*

"

Retro Reflfect1vs

111. RESULTS
Ir

Figure 3. Comer elements in the Retro Retlective sheet illustrate the property that light is reflected straight back along the line of incidence. measured intrinsic spatial resolution with three CsI(TI) crystals of sizes 5.8 cm x 5.6 cm x 5 mm, 6 cm x 6 cm x 12 mm, and 6 cm x 6 cm x 20 mm coupled to a square Hamamtsu R3941 PSPMT with an active Photocathode area of 55 mm x 60 mm (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.). The sides of the crystals were either wrapped in Teflon tape to reflect all incident light or with black electrical tape to absorb all incident light. The front surfaces of the crystals were covered with Teflon tape or with the Retro Reflective tape. The Retro Retlective tape was coupled to the surface with optical grease to reduce the possibility of an air gap being introduced.

Intrinsic spatial resolution and energy resolution results for the three crystals i n various configurations are shown in tables 1, 2 and 3. Results are for resolution measurements made near the center of the crystal where it is most uniform. The resolution value presented is an average of three measurements made on three line sources near the center of the field of view (FOV) in two directions, for a total of 18 independent measurements. Table 1. lntnnsic spatial resolution and energy resolution for 5 mm thick CsI crystal with different :surfacetreatments. Crystal
"^l...l."^ Sides
"

Crystal

A. Intrinsic Spatial Resolution Measurements

Intrinsic spatial resolution was measured by (140 irradiating a 0.5 mm slit in 1.2 cm thick lcad with YLJn'T~ keV gamma, 6 hour half life), stepping it across the field of view (FOV) of the camera face and acquiring images at 5 mm intervals. The process was repeated in the other orthogonal direction. The slit images were processed with a 15% cnergy

.l.""._..;r??!,.-"" Black Reflector Black Teflon Teflon Reflector Teflon Teflon

Average Resolution ........,....I ....... 3.6 k 0.3 mm 5.0 k 0.3 mm 5.7 * 0.4 mm 5.8 f 0.4 mm
"

Best Value
--^-..--.----

Energy Resolution
28.1 % 29.3 % 22.7 % 21.2 %

3.1 mm
4.5 m m

5.2.mm 5.2 mm

With black tape on the sides of the crystal there is a significant improvement in spatial resolution when using Retro Reflective tape instead of Teflon tape for the 5 mm crystal. For the 12 mm crystal, there is a slight improvement

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in spatial resolution when using Retro Reflective tape instead of Teflon tape. When using the thickest crystal there is no significant difference between the Teflon tape and the Retro Reflective tape. This result runs contrary to our initial expectations, and is explained further in a later paragraph. With Teflon tape coating the sides of the crystals, the difference in spatial resolution is diminished in all cases. Table 2. Intrinsic spatial resolution and energy resolution for 12 mm ,thick.Csl crystal with different surface treatments. Crystal Sides Black Black Teflon Teflon Crystal Front Reflector Teflon Reflector Teflon Average Resoluion 4.8 2 0.3 mm 5.3 2 0.3 mm 7.9 2 0.3 mm 8.2 2 0.4 mm Best Value
4.2 mi 4.7 mm 7.4 mm 7.6 mm

.. .

..

. .

_-. . . . .

-~

60

Energy Resolution
29.2 r/C 30.1 '7r 21.8 '70 20.9 %

2 IO 0/
0

1
P

50

100

150

Figure 5 . Composite of plot profiles through the center of the 7 slits shown in figure 4 for Retro Reflective tape. The y and x axes are in arbitrary units of counts and position, respectively. The average peak to valley ratio was calculated to be 4.0.
-.

Table 3. Intrinsic spatial resolution and energy resolution for 20 mm thick CsI crystal with different surface treatments. Crystal Sides - _Black Black Average Resolution F r o !. -Reflector 84k0.7" Teflon 80+0.4mm
~

Crystal

Best Value
7 3 mm 75"

60

___I_

_ _ l l ^ l l _ l _ _ l l l _ -

Energy Resolution 35 8 %
"

1 _ .

32 6 %

As a graphic illustration of the difference in resolution achieved with the Teflon tape and with the Retro Reflective tape, figure 4 shows two images taken with the 5 mm thick CsI crystal of 7 slits separated by 5 mm. The slits can be more clearly resolved for the reflective tape image than for the Teflon image. Figures 5 and 6 show composite plots of profiles through the center of each slit image taken with the Retro Reflective tape and with the Teflon tape, respectively. The average peak to valley ratios for the profiles in figures 5 and 6 are 4.0 and 2.2, respectively.

0
-

50
. -

100

150
. .

Figure 6. Composite of plot profiles through the center of the 7 slits shown in figure 4 for Teflon tape. The y and x axes are in arbitrary units of counts and position, respectively. The average peak to valley ratio was calculated to be 2.2.

IV. DISCUSSION
With Teflon tape coating the sides of the crystals, scintillation light is allowed to reflect back toward the center of the crystal, improving light collection but severely degrading spatial resolution and reducing the useful FOV. Small gamma cameras employing continuous crystals commonly suffer from prohibitively small FOVs. To avoid this problem the crystal sides are often wrapped with black tape, sacrificing light collection for improved spatial resolution. The results of our study show that with the sides wrapped in Teflon tape there is only a slight improvement in spatial resolution for the crystal with Retro Reflective tape compared to the crystal with Teflon tape on the front surface. Light reflecting back toward the center of the crystal from the sides will obscure any gains made in resolution due to the Retro Reflective surface on the front of the crystal. The black tape on the sides of the crystals absorbs incident light and allows the crystal thickness and front surface reflector to more directly determine the intrinsic spatial resolution. We are thus better able to see the effects of using the Retro Reflective tape. Our hypothesis as to why Retro Reflective tape loses its effectiveness in improving spatial resolution as the crystal

Figure 4. A composite image of slits separated by 5 mm taken with the 5 mm thick CsI crystal with black tape on the sides with Retro Retlective tape (left) or Teflon tape (right) on the front surface. From figures 5 and 6 one can sce that the Retro Reflective tape has the effect of not only increasing spatial resolution, but of spreading out the slits slightly more. This effectively increases the useful FOV slightly. The energy resolution of the system does not seem to significantly depend on whether Retro Reflective tape or Teflon tape is coating the front surface of the crystal. Energy resolution depends primarily on the treatment of the sides of the crystals. As expected, with Teflon tape on the sides, there is greater light collection, which leads to improved energy resolution.

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thickness increases is based on the fact that it influences only reflected scintillation light. Reflected scintillation light IS one major contributor to resolution loss due to light blur. Another major contributor is primary, or unreflected scintillation light. The relative contributions of these components of light blurring depend on crystal thickness and amma ray energy. For a low energy gamma ray, such as ""'Tc, most of the scintillation events will occur in the first few millimeters of the crystal. If the crystal is thin, then primary scintillation light does not have much of a chance to spread out, and reflected light plays a relatively large role in resolution loss. If the crystal is thick, then primary scintillation light can spread over a much larger area, and reflected scintillation light plays a relatively minor role in resolution loss. Any gains made in resolution due to retro reflection of scintillation light will be overshadowed by the much larger spread of primary light, and thus we do not see a significant difference in spatial resolution between the 20 mm thick crystal treated with Teflon tape and the 20 mm crystal treated with Retro Reflective tape. Presumably, for a very thick crystal, the theoretical spatial resolution should be the same with both surface treatments. If the gamma ray energy is increased, the mean depth of interaction of the gamma in the crystal will increase, and we expect the reflected scintillation light to play a relatively larger role in light spread. Thus we would expect, for equal crystal thickness, to see the Retro Reflective tape improve the spatial resolution more with high energy than with low energy gamma rays. Since the energy resolution and light collection are similar for both Teflon and Retro Reflective front surface coatings, we luckily do not have to make a compromise between energy and spatial resolution (as one must, for example, in deciding between black tape and Teflon tape on the sides of the crystal). We are free to choose the surface treatment that is best suited to each particular crystal. We expect that the performance of the Retro Reflective tape would further improve if incorporated into a professional manufacturing process. When performing these experiments, the Retro Reflective tape was simply coupled to the crystal with optical grease and slight pressure. It was impossible to squeeze out all of the air bubbles, for example. With proper equipment, it will be much easier to ensure good optical coupling between the crystal and the reflective tape. In addition, were the use of Retro Reflective tape to become more widespread, it could be manufactured to the size of the crystal. In this experiment we placed strips of tape adjacent to one another on the crystal and are unsure of the effects that the edges of the tape may have had on the light spread and consequent spatial resolution. Furthermore, we expect to see greater improvement in spatial resolution with the Retro Reflective tape for wellpolished crystals. For a well polished and smooth front crystal surface, the effects of light reflected at random angles (angles not at the angle of incidence) should be reduced, thus

improving the performance of the Retro Reflective tape relative to the Teflon tape. Randomly scattered light adds "noise" to the system, effectively blurring the light spread function. This will degrade resolution with both Teflon and Retro Reflective tape, and will obscure the small differences between them in light spread and spatial resolution. We did not have available to us proper polishing equipment for CsI(T1).

V. CONCLUSIONS
The use of Retro Retlective tape as a coating on the front surface of a scintillation crystal may be an inexpensive method of improving intrinsic spatial resolution of continuous crystal scintillation cameras that is simple to implement. We hypothesize that the Retro Reflective tape will play a relatively larger role in reducing overall light spread with thinner crystals and with highcr energy gamma rays. In addition, the use of the tape does not appear to significantly degrade energy resolution or light collection.

VI. ACKNOWL:EDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Dr. Craig Levin, Dr. Magnus Dahlbom and Dr. Yiping Shao for their valuable input and advice. We wish to thank Dr. Carolyn Kimme-Smith for her continued support. This work has been funded in part by the California Breast Cancer Research Program training grant 2TB-0915 K258 and by DOE Contract DE-FC03-87ER60615.

VII. REFERENCES
J. A. Sorenson. Phelps, Michael E., Physics in Nuclear Medicine, Second ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 198'7. G. F. Knoll, Radiation Detection and Measurement, Second ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979. J. G. Rogers, D. P. Saylor, R. Harrop, X. G . Yao, C. V. M. Leitao, and B. D. Pate, "Design of an efficient position sensitive gamma ray detector for nuclear medicine," Physics in Medicine and Biology, vol. 3 1, pp. 1061-90, 1986. C . S . Levin, E. J. Hoffman, M. P. Tomai, and L. R. MacDonald, "PSPMT and photodiode designs of a small scintillation camera for imaging malignant breast tumors,",, 1997. R. Pani, F. Scopinaro, R. Pellegrini, A. Soluri, A. Pergola, G . De Vincentis, M. Ierardi, and I. N. Weinberg, "Single tube gamma camera for scintimammography," Anticancer Research, vol. 17, pp. 1651-4, 1997. S. Majewski, F. Farzanpay, A. Goode, B. Kross, D. Steinbach, A. Weisenberger, M. Williams, and R. Wojcik, "Development of an application specific scintimammography detector based on a crystal scintillator array and a PSPMT,",, 1998.

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