Fiscal Year:
2001
Title:
SEARCH FOR OPTIMAL PET SCINTILLATOR CRYSTALS
Agency:
HHS
Contract:
N/A
Award Amount:
$148,443.00
Abstract:
DESCRIPTION (Provided by Applicant): This proposal concerns the search for
optimal scintillator crystals for positron emission tomography (PET). At
present, the availability and performance of PET systems is limited chiefly by
the unavailability of scintillators with sufficiently short attenuation
lengths, high luminosities, short decay times, and low cost. We propose to
undertake a systematic and exhaustive search to find optimal PET scintillator
materials, involving a combination of computational and experimental screening
of the entire NIST Crystal Data database. First, the software tools, developed
during the course of a previous SBIR project, calculate the attenuation
lengths, photoelectric fractions, densities, and costs for all known materials
and prioritize them according to moieties of a set of PET figures of merit
developed by experts in the field. Next, the experimental tools, developed at
Crystal Research, LBNL, and ALEM Associates, measure the luminosities, decay
times, emission wavelengths, and ease of crystal growth of the most promising
candidates, using small powder samples. Finally, the software calculates the
set of complete PET figures of merit for all the compounds studied. The result
is expected to be a short list of compounds having the highest likelihood of
optimal PET performance and therefore suitable for single crystal studies
during Phase II.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE
Principal Investigator:
Paul J. Shlichta
Small Business Information at Submission:
CRYSTAL RESEARCH
9112 TUCKER RD SE OLYMPIA, WA 98513
EIN/Tax ID:
330481159
DUNS:
N/A
Number of Employees:
N/A
Woman-Owned:
No
Minority-Owned:
No
HUBZone-Owned:
No