Counting rates

Figure 8 Stage IIAE count rate as a function of stress range...

Due to the pulsed radiation output of the LINAC the detectors and the detector electronics have to handle very high counting rates in very short periods. Therefore the detectors have to work in a mode, where the detector output is integrated for one or several beam pulses. For that purpose the crystals are coupled to photo- diodes. Their currents are read out and analysed by the electronic board, which has been developed for this special application. 

Tajima and co-workers [108] determined the surface excess of sodium dode-cyl sulfate by means of the radioactivity method, using tritiated surfactant of specific activity 9.16 Ci/mol. The area of solution exposed to the detector was 37.50 cm. In a particular experiment, it was found that with 1.0 x 10" Af surfactant the surface count rate was 17.0 x 10 counts per minute. Separate calibration showed that of this count was 14.5 X 10 came from underlying solution, the rest being surface excess. It was also determined that the counting efficiency for surface material was 1.1%. Calculate F for this solution. 

For some experiments, the solar neutrino flux and the rate of decay of the proton being extreme examples, tire count rate is so small that observation times of months or even years are required to yield rates of sufficiently small relative uncertainty to be significant. For high count rate experiments, the limitation is the speed with which the electronics can process and record the incoming infomiation. 

The velocity distribution/(v) depends on the conditions of the experiment. In cell and trap experiments it is usually a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution at some well defined temperature, but /(v) in atomic beam experiments, arising from optical excitation velocity selection, deviates radically from the nonnal thennal distribution [471. The actual signal count rate, relates to the rate coefficient through... 

In research environments where the configuration and activity level of a sample can be made to conform to the desires of the experimenter, it is now possible to measure the energies of many y-rays to 0.01 keV and their emission rates to an uncertainty of about 0.5%. As the measurement conditions vary from the optimum, the uncertainty of the measured value increases. In most cases where the counting rate is high enough to allow collection of sufficient counts in the spectmm, the y-ray energies can stih be deterrnined to about 0.5 keV. If the configuration of the sample is not one for which the detector efficiency has been direcdy measured, however, the uncertainty in the y-ray emission rate may increase to 5 or 10%. 

In the presented work an algorithm for the primary radiation filter optimization has been developed and realized in the Mathcad envelope which provides a minimal detection limit of a critical element both at the given X-ray tube power and at the given maximal acceptable count rate. 

Such significant increase of accuracy may be explained on the base of analysis of the numerical values of the theoretical correction coefficients and calculated for 1, , and for analytical pai ameter lQ.j,yipj.j,jj- Changing from lines intensities for the ratios of analytical element line intensity to the intensity of the line most effecting the result of analytical element (chromium in this case) measurement enables the decreases of the error 5 or even 10 times practically to the level of statistics of the count rate. In case of chromium the influencing elements will be titanium, tungsten or molybdenum. 

With the same scanning capability, it is much faster and often more useful to simply scan one line on a sample. The data is again output to a color CRT, but it is presented as the modulation of the y-amplitude, which is determined by the intensity of the X-ray signal production ftom the ROI of the element of interest. As the probe scans along the line, the CRT plots a graph of the elemental counting rates versus distance. Here again, it is usually possible to plot the data from many ele-... 

Because X-ray counting rates are relatively low, it typically requires 100 seconds or more to accumulate adequate counting statistics for a quantitative analysis. As a result, the usual strategy in applying electron probe microanalysis is to make quantitative measurements at a limited collection of points. Specific analysis locations are selected with the aid of a rapid imaging technique, such as an SEM image prepared with backscattered electrons, which are sensitive to compositional variations, or with the associated optical microscope. 

The information is qualitative in nature. The area density of dots suggests local concentration differences, but the count rate at each point, which is fundamental information required for quantitation, is lost. 

Because of count rate performance and peak-to-bacl round, WDS is preferable to EDS for mapping, particularly for minor and trace constituents. 

If the primary ion beam is used to continuously remove material from the surface of a specimen in a given area, the analytical zone is advanced into the sample as a function of the sputtering time. By monitoring the secondary ion count rates of selected... 

A mass scan is acquired in cases when a survey of all impurities present in a volume of material is needed. Rather than measuring the secondary ion count rates of preselected elements as a fimction of sputtering time the count rates of all secondary ions are measured as a fimction of mass. Because a mass scan is continuously acquired over a mass range, no depth profiling or lateral information is available while operating in this mode. Figure 4 shows a mass scan acquired from a zirconia... 

Ion intensities up to a count rate of 2 x 10 are measured using a secondary electron multiplier (SEM). When it becomes saturated above that value, it is necessary to switch to a Faraday cup. Its ion-current amplification must be adjusted to fit to the electron multiplier response. 

Resistive Anode Encoder (RAE). This detector has the advantage that the single-ion events are detected digitally. It therefore it delivers quantitative results, irrespective of local differences in the amplification of the channel plate. One disadvantage is that the count rate is limited to 200000. 

Optimum resolution, i. e. low full width at half-maximum (FWHM), is a trade-off between high count rate, i. e. low dead-time, and good spectral resolution. 

Counting rate The number of counting events per unit time. 

Zero count rate The number of counts recorded in unit time by an optical particle counter when a particle-free gas is passed through the measuring chamber. 

To determine the ftq, value of Hg a solid sample is used, in which some of the iodine is present as radioactive 1-131. The count rate of the sample is 5.0 X 1011 counts per minute per mole of L An excess amount of Hg2I2(s) is placed in some water, and the solid is allowed to come to equilibrium with its respective ions. A 150.0-mL sample of the saturated solution is withdrawn and the radioactivity measured at 33 counts per minute. From this information, calculate the ft, value for Hg2l2. 

Integration. A detector that yields discrete pulses can be used as an instantaneous detector if the pulses can be averaged to form a continuous electric current, as in a counting-rate meter. These devices usually consist of a capacitor that is charged by the pulses and a re-... 

Intensity measurements are simplified when a detector always gives one electrical pulse for each x-ray quantum absorbed the detector remains linear so long as this is true. For low intensities, when the rates of incidence upon the detector are low, the Geiger counter fulfills this condition. As this rate increases above (about) 500 counts per second, the number of pulses per second decreases progressively below the number of quanta absorbed per second. This decrease occurs even with electronic circuits that can handle higher counting rates without appreciable losses. 

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