Arms, D A

Optimal Countrates for Deadtime Corrections

The high x-ray flux available at synchrotron radiation sources can cause nonlinearities in photon-counting detectors unless deadtime corrections are employed. We compute the uncertainties associated with several common deadtime-correction formulas. At lower countrates, statistical noise dominates the error in the measured countrates; at higher countrates, the dominating factors are saturation of the response and uncertainty in the value of the deadtime parameter. In between, a range of countrates exists in which the signal-to-noise ratio can be optimized for photon-counting experiments.