Investigating the timing behavior of compton scattering in BGO for time-of-flight PET
Abstract
Objective. Bismuth germanate (BGO) has regained attention as a promising material for hybrid Cherenkov/scintillation time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET). While excellent timing performance has been demonstrated in single-crystal studies using prompt Cherenkov photons, practical pixelated detector modules introduce appreciable inter-crystal scattering (InterCS) events that can degrade timing accuracy. The objective of this work was to experimentally investigate the impact ofInterCSon Cherenkov-based timing in pixelated BGO detectors and to identify optimal timestamp selection strategies.Approach. A dual-pixel BGO detector was constructed and coupled to a segmented SiPM readout to enable spatially resolved energy and timing measurements. Events were classified into full-energy deposition (FED); primary crystal 511 keV absorption),InterCS, andpenetrationcategories using energy-weighted positioning. This experimental classification was validated using GATE simulations, which further revealed that intra-crystal scattering (IntraCS) accounted for more than 25% of the events experimentally classified asFED. Multiple timestamp selection strategies were evaluated, and prompt photon statistics were quantified by integrating the first 1 ns of the timing waveform.Main results. ForInterCSevents, selecting the earlier of the two timestamps yielded a coincidence timing resolution of 221 ps FWHM (831 ps FWTM) measured in coincidence with a LYSO:(Ce, Mg) reference detector,…
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