Materials 2011, 4(6), 1034-1086; doi:10.3390/ma4061034
Review

Storage Phosphors for Medical Imaging

Paul Leblans 1,* email, Dirk Vandenbroucke 1 email and Peter Willems 2 email
1 Agfa HealthCare NV, Septestraat 27, B-2640 Mortsel, Belgium 2 Industrial Scientific and Computing BVBA, Hellestraat 55, B-9190 Stekene, Belgium
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 24 March 2011; in revised form: 30 May 2011 / Accepted: 7 June 2011 / Published: 9 June 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Luminescent Materials 2011)
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Abstract: Computed radiography (CR) uses storage phosphor imaging plates for digital imaging. Absorbed X-ray energy is stored in crystal defects. In read-out the energy is set free as blue photons upon optical stimulation. In the 35 years of CR history, several storage phosphor families were investigated and developed. An explanation is given as to why some materials made it to the commercial stage, while others did not. The photo stimulated luminescence mechanism of the current commercial storage phosphors, BaFBr:Eu2+ and CsBr:Eu2+ is discussed. The relation between storage phosphor plate physical characteristics and image quality is explained. It is demonstrated that the morphology of the phosphor crystals in the CR imaging plate has a very significant impact on its performance.
Keywords: computed radiography; storage phosphor; X-ray; optically stimulated lumi-nescence; BaFBr:Eu2+; CsBr:Eu2+; needle imaging plate; image quality

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Leblans, P.; Vandenbroucke, D.; Willems, P. Storage Phosphors for Medical Imaging. Materials 2011, 4, 1034-1086.

AMA Style

Leblans P, Vandenbroucke D, Willems P. Storage Phosphors for Medical Imaging. Materials. 2011; 4(6):1034-1086.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leblans, Paul; Vandenbroucke, Dirk; Willems, Peter. 2011. "Storage Phosphors for Medical Imaging." Materials 4, no. 6: 1034-1086.

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