Design and initial performance of PlanTIS: a high-resolution positron emission tomograph for plants

Positron emitters such as C-11, N-13 and F-18 and their labelled compounds are widely used in clinical diagnosis and animal studies, but can also be used to study metabolic and physiological functions in plants dynamically and in vivo. A very particular tracer molecule is (CO2)-C-11 since it can be applied to a leaf as a gas. We have developed a Plant Tomographic Imaging System (PlanTIS), a high-resolution PET scanner for plant studies. Detectors, front-end electronics and data acquisition architecture of the scanner are based on the ClearPET (TM) system. The detectors consist of LSO and LuYAP crystals in phoswich configuration which are coupled to position-sensitive photomultiplier tubes. Signals are continuously sampled by free running ADCs, and data are stored in a list mode format. The detectors are arranged in a horizontal plane to allow the plants to be measured in the natural upright position. Two groups of four detector modules stand face-to-face and rotate around the field-of-view. This special system geometry requires dedicated image reconstruction and normalization procedures. We present the initial performance of the detector system and first phantom and plant measurements.