Performance evaluation of MACACO: A multilayer Compton camera

Abstract

Compton imaging devices have been proposed and studied for a wide range of applications. We have developed a Compton camera prototype which can be operated with two or three detector layers based on monolithic lanthanum bromide (LaBr3) crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), to be used for proton range verification in hadron therapy. In this work, we present the results obtained with our prototype in laboratory tests with radioactivesources and in simulation studies. Images of a 22Na and an 88Y radioactive sources have been successfully reconstructed. The full width half maximum of the reconstructed images is below 4 mm for a 22Na source at a distance of 5 cm.