Driftless gas proportional scintillation counter pulse analysis using digital processing techniques

Abstract

AbstractA driftless gas proportional scintillation counter (GPSC) of simple design, using digital pulse‐signature analysis, is described. The digital pulse acquisition and processing techniques are shown to be a simple and effective method to determine pulse time duration and to perform pulse amplitude correction in driftless GPSCs. This technique allows the application of driftless GPSCs to x‐ray spectrometry up to 60 keV. Although the pulse throughput achieved by the digital pulse‐height analyser in this application is limited to about 2 kHz, total interaction rates above 20 kHz can be tolerated by the detector without significant degradation of the pulse‐height distributions obtained. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.