Towards TOF Improvements: Metascintillator Simulation using BaF2 as Fast Scintillator

Time-of-Flight information provides an important increase on the image quality in PET. One of the most limiting factors to improve this information is the light production of the scintillator crystals which convert the gamma radiation into detectable light. This work presents a simulation study based on the concept of metascintillators that can lead to a PET TOF detector with a good tradeoff between detection efficiency and timing resolution. While in metascintillators the combination of the stopping power of a high-Z material with the photon production of fast organic scintillators has shown promise, the low stopping power of the organic scintillators limits the extent to which metascintillator functionality can be applicable in industrial contexts. If instead of organic scintillators, fast materials such as BaF2 are used, this compromise is lifted. The results of the simulations using a combination of BGO and LYSO with BaF2 in two configurations (parallel and perpendicular) show the performance and feasibility of the use of these types of meta-scintillators. Energy sharing seems to be significantly more extensive as compared to previous published works, rendering this combination attractive for experimentation and development up to system level.