Trapezoidal pulse shaping for pile-up pulse identification in X-ray spectrometry

Energy resolution is affected by the intrinsic energy resolution of the detector, ballistic deficit, pile-up pulses and noise. Pile-up pulses become the dominant factor that degrades energy resolution after the system is established, so pile-up rejection is often applied to obtain good energy resolution by discarding pulses that are expected to be contaminated by pile-up. However, pile-up rejection can reduce count rates and thus lower the measurement precision. In order to improve count rates and maintain energy resolution, a new method of pile-up pulse identification based on trapezoidal pulse shaping is presented. Combined with pulse width discrimination, this method is implemented by recording pulses that are not seriously piled up. Some experimental tests with a Cu-Pb alloy sample are carried out to verify the performance of this method in X-ray spectrometry. The results show that the method can significantly improve count rates without degrading energy resolution.