Theoretical basis for the experimental determination of the intrinsic resolution of a strip detector

Abstract

AbstractThe principal contribution to the peak broadening is the broadening determined by the intrinsic particles' (iparticles) statistics. Iparticles are particles which are generated in the detector's absorber by incident X‐rays and cause signals at the detector's output. Detectors of this type are superconducting and scintillation detectors with quasiparticles and light photons as iparticles, correspondingly. In this work, the theory of branching cascade processes is applied to the description of signal formation in a detector with a single iparticles absorber and several outputs for soft X‐rays. From this theory, it follows the new method of experimental determination of the Fano factor. It is shown that the covariance between two signals of a strip detector depends on the fundamental combination of the Fano factor and the effective energy of the intrinsic particle creation in the absorber material. Independent determination of the effective energy of the intrinsic particle creation allows determining the value of the Fano factor. The important advantage of the proposed method is its independence from the sensors' electronic gains and noise. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.