Application of Pile-Up Distortion Calculations

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.