The Importance of Good Energy Resolution

Case I E- — E 2F. The measured spectrum is shown in Fig. 9.15 for this case. The system can resolve the two peaks—i.e., the two peaks can be identified as two separate energies. 

Case II E - E = 2T. This case is shown in Fig. 9.16. The peaks can still be resolved. 

It is obvious that it is difficult to identify two distinct peaks if E2 — E = T, and the situation will be worse if E2 — F. 

The three cases examined above intend to show how important good energy resolution is for the measurement of spectra with many energy peaks. If the response function of the detector is not known and the measured spectrum shows no well-identified peaks, the following criterion is used for the energy resolution required to identify the peaks of about equal magnitude  

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