Application of Pile-Up Distortion Calculations

Abstract

Factors of interest to an experimenter who feels that his measurement may be distorted by pile‐up effects are: relative distortion of the distribution peak (peak position, as well as peak count); distortion of the distribution shape; influence of the detector output waveform on spectral distortion; influence of radiation source intensity (pulse rate) on spectral distortion; influence of detector resolution (dimensions and type of detector) and amplifier resolution (noise, drift); discontinuities in spectra produced by pile‐up, etc. This paper gives quantitative answers to such questions in the form of curves. Results are obtained on the basis of recently developed theories of pile‐up effect. The domain of validity of results is shown, as well as a comparision between different approaches (analytical and numerical) for calculation of spectral distortions due to pile‐up effect.