Optimisation of a dual head semiconductor Compton camera using Geant4

Conventional medical gamma-ray camera systems utilise mechanical collimation to provide information on the position of an incident gamma-ray photon. Systems that use electronic collimation utilising Compton image reconstruction techniques have the potential to offer huge improvements in sensitivity. Position sensitive high purity germanium (HPGe) detector systems are being evaluated as part of a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) Compton camera system. Data have been acquired from the orthogonally segmented planar SmartPET detectors, operated in Compton camera mode. The minimum gamma-ray energy which can be imaged by the current system in Compton camera configuration is 244keV due to the 20mm thickness of the first scatter detector which causes large gamma-ray absorption. A simulation package for the optimisation of a new semiconductor Compton camera has been developed using the Geant4 toolkit. This paper will show results of preliminary analysis of the validated Geant4 simulation for gamma-ray energies of SPECT, 141keV.