How manyFanofactors should characterize anX‐ray scintillation spectrometer?

Abstract

Bousselham et al. in their article “Photoelectron Anticorrelations and Sub‐Poissonian Statistics in Scintillation Detectors” introduced two Fano factors—the Fano factor for scintillation photons and the Fano factor for photoelectrons. The exact mathematical description of processes at registration of X‐rays by a scintillation detector allows receiving correct formulae for the mean value and the variance of the amplitude at the output of a detector. From the analysis of these formulae, it follows that a scintillation detector should be characterized by only the one Fano factor determining fluctuations in the process of electron‐hole pairs generation. Only this Fano factor is determined by the electronic structure of the scintillation crystal and does not depend on the transparency and coating of the scintillation crystal, and the characteristic of photodetectors, and the crystal‐photodetector interfaces.