Positron emission and obtaining of radionuclides from DPF device

PET is a sophisticate method of diagnostic based on special category of radiotracers containing positron-emitting radionuclides. Positron and electron are both a particle and antiparticle for each other. Until now the main source of isotopes emitting positrons are cyclotrons. They are still very expensive and developed countries only. Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) is a powerful source of neutrons, X-rays, electromagnetic fields as well as particles and ions. Despite the fact that DPF is mostly used for the research on plasma physics it is possible to obtain a large amount of short-lived isotopes of light elements as a result of protons and deuterons interaction with special targets. Deuterons or protons emitted from plasma focus bombarded carbon and boron target respectively. Gamma quanta wth energy 511 keV were obtained after annihilation of positron and electron couple. An activated target was measured based on gamma spectrometry method. The activity of isotopes was determined with multichannel analyser and high purity germanium detector. The obtained activity varied from a few Bq of 11C up to a few kBq of 13N. Based on numerical estimation and carried out researches it is considered that DPF could be very attractive powerful and cheap source of radionuclides for PET. (author)