A new application note, AN57 Dealing with Dead Time Distortion in a Time Digitizer, is available free of charge from ORTEC. AN57 examines the dead-time distortions inherent with time digitizers applied to high event rates. Some of the results are somewhat surprising. The application note also includes a practical scheme for making dead-time corrections to the time spectrum after the spectrum has been acquired. The principles are elucidated by typical applications in time-of-flight mass spectrometry, although they are also applicable to LIDAR, optronics and nuclear spectrometry.

A free copy of AN57 can be ordered from info_ORTEC@perkinelmer.com, or downloaded from the application notes page of the ORTEC web site at http://www.ORTEC-online.com.