Development and Preliminary Results of Dual-View Compton Camera Prototype for Prompt Gamma Imaging

Compton-based prompt gamma imaging is promising to realize the real-time range verification for in-vivo beam during proton therapy. In this study, we designed and developed a novel dual-view Compton camera prototype based on the dense pixelate LYSO and LaBr3 detectors. The prototype consists of a main-view Compton camera and an auxiliary-view Compton camera placed on a mutually perpendicular plane, to realize the 3D high-resolution imaging of focal regions. The main-view Compton camera designed for high detection efficiency was built by two LYSO 46×46 crystal arrays, two 8×8 SiPMs, and two encoding circuits of 64 channels transferred to 4 channels, and an 8-channel DAQ. And the auxiliary-view Compton camera designed for high energy resolution was built with the same components except for the two LaBr3 9×9 crystal arrays. By adopting the data of the two Compton cameras and joint energy spectral sparse origin ensemble algorithm, we solve the problem of 3D reconstruction distortion of the single-view Compton camera prototype and effectively suppress the background noise such as proton-induced neutrons. The simulation results showed the dual-view Compton camera prototype could realize the three-dimensional high resolution and low background prompt gamma imaging. Preliminary experimental results of the LYSO Compton camera prototype are in line with simulated performance expectations. The completed dual-view Compton camera prototype is expected to obtain experimental results for clinical prompt gamma imaging in the future.