Gamma-ray imaging with position-sensitive HPGe detectors

Due to advances in manufacturing large and highly segmented HPGe detectors along with the availability of fast and high-precision digital electronics, it is now possible to build efficient and high-resolution Compton cameras. Two-dimensionally segmented semi-conductor detectors along with pulse-shape analysis allow to obtain three-dimensional positions and energies of individual gamma-ray interactions. By employing gamma-ray tracking procedures it is possible to determine the scattering sequence in the detector and ultimately to deduce the incident direction of gamma rays without the use of a attenuating collimator. These advanced gamma-ray tracking-based Compton cameras are able not only to image gamma-ray sources with higher sensitivity than collimator-based systems but can increase the sensitivity in finding gamma-ray sources over non-imaging detectors, particularly in complex radiation fields. We have implemented a Compton camera built of a single double-sided strip HPGe detector with a strip pitch size of 2 mm. A three-dimensional position resolution of 0.5 mm at 122 keV by using simple pulse-shape analysis is achieved. We have implemented image reconstruction procedures for search scenarios, which are of interest for national security applications. In addition, we have developed reconstruction procedures to optimize image quality which potentially finds applications in other areas as well. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.