Count Rate Correction - Application Note by X-Spectrum GmbH

Count Rate Correction (CRC) is a feature available for all LAMBDA detectors, including the LAMBDA E and LAMBDA Lab series. It is designed to compensate for the loss of recorded photon counts that occurs when the detector is exposed to high photon flux. At high count rates, the detector dead time causes photons arriving within a certain time interval to be registered as a single event, resulting in an underestimation of the actual photon count rate. By applying CRC, the number of unaccounted photons is estimated based on the detector’s dead time, providing a corrected count rate that more accurately represents the incident photon flux. In this application note, we explain the pile-up mechanism, its impact on count rate linearity at high photon flux, and demonstrate how CRC restores measurement accuracy.