Split xenon detector for tomochemistry in computed tomography.

The design of a split high-pressure xenon detector array for tomochemistry in computed tomography (CT) is described. Each detector produces a signal from the front primarily due to low energy photons and a signal from the back primarily due to high energy photons. Two methods are described whereby these signals are used to determine the photoelectric and Compton coefficients. From these, the electron density and average atomic number can be determined for each pixel in the image. These methods were tested by computer simulations of scans of a simple phantom, and the resulting Compton and photoelectric images are presented and compared with a conventional CT image. It was found that electron density and atomic number can be determined to an accuracy of better than 4%. The sensitivity to noise was studied, and it was found that the standard deviation of the mean of a 5 X 5 pixel region in the conventional image is about a factor of 3 lower than in the same region in the Compton image and about a factor of 40 lower than in the photoelectric image.