A digital Compton suppression spectroscopy without gamma-ray coincidence-summing loss using list-mode multispectral data acquisition

Abstract

The study demonstrates the advantages of an innovative list-mode multispectral data acquisition system that allows simultaneous creation of several different single, summed, coincident and anticoincident spectra with a single measurement. One of the consequences of list-mode data file offline processing is a reconstructed spectrum with Compton continuum suppression and without any full-energy peak efficiency deduction owing to true coincidence summing. The spectrometer is designed to read out analogue signal from preamplifier of gamma-ray detectors and to digitalize it using DGF/Pixie-4 software and card package (XIA LLC). This is realized by converting an Ortec Compton suppression data acquisition system into an all-digital spectrometer. Instead of using its timing electronic chain to determine the coincidence event, the analog signals from primary and guard detectors were connected directly into the Pixie-4 card for pulse height and time coincident measurement by individually logging and time stamping each electronic pulse. The data acquired in list-mode included coincidence and anticoincidence events consisting of records of energy and timestamp from primary and guard detectors. Every event was stored in a text file for offline processing and spectral reconstruction. A sophisticated computer simulation was also created with the goals of obtaining a better understanding of the experimental results and calculating efficiency.