Application of a deep learning algorithm to Compton imaging of radioactive point sources with a single planar CdTe pixelated detector

Compton imaging is the main method for locating radioactive hot spots emitting high-energy gamma-ray photons. In particular, this imaging method is crucial when the photon energy is too high for coded-mask aperture imaging methods to be effective or when a large field of view is required. Reconstruction of the photon source requires advanced Compton event processing algorithms to determine the exact position of the source. In this study, we introduce a novel method based on a Deep Learning algorithm with a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to perform Compton imaging. This algorithm is trained on simulated data and tested on real data acquired with Caliste, a single planar CdTe pixelated detector. We show that performance in terms of source location accuracy is equivalent to state-of-the-art algorithms, while computation time is significantly reduced and sensitivity is improved by a factor of ∼5 in the Caliste configuration.