Screen optics effects on detective quantum efficiency in digital radiography: Zero-frequency effects

Indirect flat panel imagers have been developed for digital radiography, fluoroscopy and mammography, and are now in clinical use. Screens made from columnar structured cesium iodide (CsI) scintillators doped with thallium have been used extensively in these detectors. The purpose of this article is to investigate the effect of screen optics, e.g., light escape efficiency versus depth, on gain fluctuation noise, expressed as the Swank factor. Our goal is to obtain results useful in optimizing screens for digital radiography systems. Experimental measurements from structured CsI samples were used to derive their screen optics properties, and the same methods can also be applied to powder screens. CsI screens, all of the same thickness but with different optical designs and manufacturing techniques, were obtained from Hamamatsu Photonics Corporation. The pulse height spectra (PHS) of the screens were measured at different x-ray energies. A theoretical model was developed for the light escape efficiency and a method for deriving light escape efficiency versus depth from experimental PHS measurements was implemented and applied to the CsI screens. The results showed that the light escape efficiency varies essentially linearly as a function of depth in the CsI samples, and that the magnitude of variation is relatively small, leading to a high Swank factor.