Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

University of Tennessee Research Foundation

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC

Siemens Molecular Imaging, Inc.

Peter Carl Cohen

Mark S Andreaco

Matthias J Schmand

Alexander Andrew Carey

A Andrew Carey

Merry A Koschan

Charles L Melcher

Robert A Mintzer

Troy Marlar

Brant Quinton

Lars Aldon Eriksson

Mohit Tyagi

Harry Hedler

Stephen Anthony Payne

James Luke Corbeil

Nerine Jane Cherepy

Ronald Grazioso

Christian J Michel

Zachary M Seeley

Maurizio Conti

Larry Byars

Christof Thalhammer

A furnace and a method of growing a high temperature oxide crystal in the furnace. The furnace includes a crucible having a melt therein and a heating element for generating heat in the melt. A thermal element within the furnace produces a thermal gradient within the melt to draw a cold spot of a convection cell of the melt away from a seed location of the crucible. A seed crystal is drawn from the melt at the seed location to form a boule to grow the high temperature oxide crystal.

Fins on crucible or gussets on refractory lining for facilitating exclusion of impurities from a boule

Disclosed herein is a furnace and a method of growing a high temperature oxide crystal. The furnace includes a cylindrical furnace wall, an induction coil disposed within the cylindrical furnace wall, a quartz tube disposed within the induction coil, a refractory lining disposed within the quartz tube, and a crucible disposed within the refractory lining, the crucible including a melt therein. A lid placed on the crucible. An asymmetric configuration of at least one of the crucible, the refractory lining, the quartz tube, the induction coil and the lid within the cylindrical furnace wall creates a thermal gradient that causes a cold spot in the melt to migrate from a first location to a second location of the melt. A rod having a seed crystal at an end thereof is lowered into the crucible to draw a boule from the melt via the seed crystal from the first location.

Asymmetric thermal fields for excluding impurities in single crystal manufacturing device

Disclosed herein is a material, comprising a first metal halide that is operative to function as a scintillator; where the first metal halide excludes cesium iodide (ScI), strontium iodide (SrI), cesium bromide (CsBr), thallium doped cesium iodide (CsI:Tl), europium doped strontium iodide (SrI:Eu), europium doped barium iodide (BaI;EU), cerium doped strontium iodide (SrI:Ce), cerium doped barium iodide (BaI:Ce), cerium doped lanthanum bromide (LaBr:Ce), and cerium doped lutetium iodide (LuI:Ce); and a surface layer comprising a second metal halide that is disposed on a surface of the first metal halide; where the second metal halide has a lower water solubility than the first metal halide.

Passivation of metal halide scintillators

The present disclosure discloses, in one arrangement, a scintillator material made of a metal halide with one or more additional group-13 elements. An example of such a compound is Ce:LaBrwith thallium (Tl) added, either as a codopant or in a stoichiometric admixture and/or solid solution between LaBrand TlBr. In another arrangement, the above single crystalline iodide scintillator material can be made by first synthesizing a compound of the above composition and then forming a single crystal from the synthesized compound by, for example, the Vertical Gradient Freeze method. Applications of the scintillator materials include radiation detectors and their use in medical and security imaging.

Metal halide scintillators with reduced hygroscopicity and method of making the same

The present disclosure discloses rare earth metal halide scintillators compositions with reduced hygroscopicity. Compositions in specific implementations include three group of elements: Lanthanides, (La, Ce, Lu, Gd or V), elements in group 17 of the periodic table of elements (CI, Br and I) and elements of group 13 (B, AI, Ga, In, TI), and any combination of these elements. Examples of methods for making the compositions are also disclosed.

Rare-earth metal halide scintillators with reduced hygroscopicity and method of making the same

Disclosed herein is a material, comprising a first metal halide that is operative to function as a scintillator; where the first metal halide excludes cesium iodide, strontium iodide, and cesium bromide; and a surface layer comprising a second metal halide that is disposed on a surface of the first metal halide; where the second metal halide has a lower water solubility than the first metal halide.

Example embodiments of a radiation detection system including a detector is described. The detector can include a scintillator, a sensor, and a light source. The radiation detection system can further include a controller programmed to control the light source to expose the scintillator to a light to saturate traps in the scintillator. In some embodiments, the detector can further include a second light source, and the controller is programmed to control the second light source to expose the scintillator to a second light to detrap afterglow traps in the scintillator.

Radiation detector for imaging applications with stabilized light output

Disclosed herein is a method including manufacturing a powder having a composition of formula (1),MMMMO&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)

Method for controlling gallium content in gadolinium-gallium garnet scintillators

A method of growing a rare-earth oxyorthosilicate crystal, and crystals grown using the method are disclosed. The method includes preparing a melt by melting a first substance including at least one first rare-earth element and providing an atmosphere that includes an inert gas and a gas including oxygen.

Crystal growth atmosphere for oxyorthosilicate materials production

Apparatuses, computer-readable mediums, and methods are provided. In one embodiment, a positron emission tomography ('PET') detector array is provided which includes a plurality of crystal elements arranged in a two-dimensional checkerboard configuration. In addition, there are empty spaces in the checkerboard configuration. In various embodiments, the empty spaces are filled with passive shielding, transmission source assemblies, biopsy instruments, surgical instruments, and/or electromagnetic sensors. In various embodiments, the crystal elements and the transmission source assemblies simultaneously perform emission/transmission acquisitions.

PET scanner with emission and transmission structures in a checkerboard configuration

Disclosed herein is a scintillator comprising a plurality of garnet compositions in a single block having the structural formula (1):MMMMO&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)where O represents oxygen, M, M, M, and Mrepresents a first, second, third and fourth metal that are different from each other, where the sum of a+b+c+d is about 8, where 'a' has a value of 2 to 3.5, 'b' has a value of 0 to 5, &#x201c;c&#x201d; has a value of 0 to 5 &#x201c;d&#x201d; has a value of 0 to 1, where &#x201c;b&#x201d; and &#x201c;c&#x201d;, &#x201c;b&#x201d; and &#x201c;d&#x201d; or &#x201c;c&#x201d; and &#x201c;d&#x201d; cannot both be equal to zero simultaneously, where Mis rare earth element including gadolinium, yttrium, lutetium, or a combination thereof, Mis aluminum or boron, Mis gallium and Mis a codopant; wherein two compositions having identical structural formulas are not adjacent to each other and wherein the single block is devoid of optical interfaces between different compositions.

Ceramic phoswich with fused optical elements, method of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same

A halide material, such as scintillator crystals of LaBr:Ce and SrI:Eu, with a passivation surface layer is disclosed. The surface layer comprises one or more halides of lower water solubility than the scintillator crystal that the surface layer covers. A method for making such a material is also disclosed. In certain aspects of the disclosure, a passivation layer is formed on a surface of a halide material such as a scintillator crystal of LaBr:Ce of SrI:Eu by fluorinating the surface with a fluorinating agent, such as Ffor LaBr:Ce and HF for SrI:Eu.

In one embodiment, a method includes forming a powder having a composition with the formula: ABCO, where h is 3&#xb1;10%, i is 2&#xb1;10%, j is 3&#xb1;10%, A includes one or more rare earth elements, B includes aluminum and/or gallium, and C includes aluminum and/or gallium. The method additionally includes consolidating the powder to form an optically transparent ceramic, and applying at least one thermodynamic process condition during the consolidating to reduce oxygen and/or thermodynamically reversible defects in the ceramic. In another embodiment, a scintillator includes (GdY)(GaAl)OD, where a is from about 0.05-2, b is from about 1-3, x is from about 2.8-3.2, y is from about 4.8-5.2, c is from about 0.003-0.3, and D is a dopant, and where the scintillator is an optically transparent ceramic scintillator having physical characteristics of being formed from a ceramic powder consolidated in oxidizing atmospheres.

Growing community of inventors

Knoxville, TN, United States of America

Peter Carl Cohen