A time-dependent Monte Carlo approach to chance coincidence summing correction factor calculation for high-purity Ge gamma-ray spectroscopy

Abstract The chance (random) coincidence correction factor (CCCF) for the counting geometry of a137Cs point source placed very close to the end cap of a high-purity Ge coaxial detector with 50% relative efficiency was evaluated by a time-dependent Monte Carlo approach. The probability distributions of gamma-ray and X-ray energy depositions in the detector crystal were obtained by use of the MCNPX code. The signal resolving time of the electronic parts, one of the parameters needed for time-dependent Monte Carlo simulation, was evaluated experimentally by the moving-source method. Another parameter also needed for the simulation is the signal pile-up rejection time interval. A random pulse generator was replaced with the detector for this purpose and the value was calculated by our iteratively comparing the spectrum obtained experimentally with the spectrum obtained from the time-dependent Monte Carlo simulation of the random pulse generator. A pulse train with a Poisson distribution in time was created, and these parameters with energy deposition probability distributions were used for theoretical determination of the high-count-rate spectrum and the low-count-rate spectrum. The CCCF for the experiment was calculated as 0.92 by our comparing these two theoretical spectra and agrees well with the experimental result, 0.94. Also, the results of paralyzable and nonparalyzable model approaches for dead time calculations were compared with the experimental results.