Improved pileup rejection for germanium gamma-ray detectors by combined interval and pulse width inspection

Summary form only given, as follows. Preliminary studies have measured the improvement in pileup rejection (PUR) in systems combining the usual time-interval inspection (TII) with the pulse-width inspection (PWI). A common problem with commercial systems is that the pulse pair resolution of the TII-based PUR has been emphasized, giving maximum reduction of the sum peaks and background continuum, but producing inferior reduction of high-energy tailing-which for accurate gamma-ray spectrometry is usually important. The basic conclusion of the study is that the addition of PWI allows optimizing the TII circuitry to give optimum reduction of high-energy tailing while producing even better continuum and sum-peak reductions (by up to factor of approximately 5) than can TII alone. It is clear that PUR systems using combined TII and PWI can be significantly enhanced through improvement in the preamplifier output form, through improved fast pulse forming electronics, and through more sophisticated pulse-width analysis.<>