Natural line-width effects in gamma- and X-ray emission rate measurements with semiconductor detectors

Abstract

The peak shapes of X-ray lines vary from those of gamma-ray lines in spectra obtained from semiconductor detectors due to different natural line widths for both types of radiation. This excludes the application of the same peak evaluation method for both gamma and X-ray peaks and complicates gamma-ray emission rate determinations with detectors calibrated by X-ray sources and vice versa. The order of magnitude of possible errors is calculated and ways to overcome the problem are discussed.