Monte Carlo simulation of pulse pile-up effect in gamma spectrum of a PGNAA system

We have applied a pile-up Monte Carlo simulation code on gamma spectrum of a prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) system. The code has been run in nonparalyzable mode for a specific geometry of a PGNAA system with 241Am–9Be source and NaI(Tl) detector to obtain the distortion due to “pile-up” in the pulse height of gamma spectrum. The results show that the main background in the nitrogen region of interest (ROI) is due to two pile-ups. We have also evaluated the variation of count rate and total photon sampling over the Monte Carlo spectra. At high count rates, not only the nitrogen ROI but also carbon ROI, and hydrogen peak are disturbed strongly. Comparison between the results of simulations and the experimental spectra has shown a good agreement. The code could be used for other source setups and different gamma detection systems.