LaBr3:Ce Scintillation Imagers Optimization by GEANT4

The increasing demand of sophisticated devices for Medical Imaging, with submillimeter spatial resolution and high detection efficiency, motivates an in-depth study of detectors able to fulfill these requirements. In particular for Single Photon Emission Tomography applications, the on-going development of large LaBr3:Ce crystals makes very attractive their use as a system of gamma imaging. Single crystals can overcome the limitation in term of spatial resolution related to pixel size in scintillation arrays, once the problems of limited position linearity and image size are solved. In this work we use GEANT4 simulations in order to model different configurations based on LaBr3:Ce crystals coupled to a Hamamatsu H8500 Multi Anode Photomultiplier. The position linearity, the spatial and energy resolutions obtainable from optimum photodetection conditions are investigated. The values obtained by the Monte Carlo simulations are compared to the experimental results and found to be in good agreement with them upon tuning of some parameters.