Quantitative gamma spectrometry at high counting rates

Quantitative gamma spectrometry at high counting rates will grow to become an accepted analytical tool as soon as pulse processing systems are available which combine maximum throughput, high resolution and best possible suppression of pulse pileup induced background. A high efficiency pileup rejector, analog FIFO memories and the novel Preloaded Filter pulse processing system will be presented as potential steps to the achievement of this goal. Net Throughput Rate/Resolution is proposed as a new measure of performance in high counting rate spectrometry, and is applied to the comparison of different systems to show that a threefold improvement upon the conventional Gated Integrator is possible.