Radiation Detectors for Medical Applications

Since their discovery by Becquerel and Röntgen, ionising radiation and detectors for ionising radiation have played an ever more important role in medical diagnostics and therapy. The use of scintillating materials in the detection of ionising radiation for medical imaging is the main topic of this book intended for an audience of physicists and engineers. The book will be useful both to new researchers entering the field and to experts interested to learn about the latest developments.

It starts with an overview of the state of the art in using radiation detectors for medical imaging, followed by an in depth discussion of all aspects of the use of scintillating materials for this application. Possibilities to improve the performance of existing scintillating materials and completely new ideas on how to use scintillating materials are discussed in detail. The first 4 chapters contain a general overview of the applications of radiation detectors in medicine and present a closer look at the 3 most important subfields, X-ray imaging, gamma ray imaging and PET. One chapter is devoted to semiconductor detectors, a promising new area, and two chapters are devoted to recent technical advances in PET. The remaining 5 chapters deal with scintillating materials and their use in medical imaging.