AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF SYMMETRICAL AND ASYMMETRIC PEAK-FITTING PARAMETERS FOR ALPHA-PARTICLE SPECTROMETRY

A pulse-height spectrum of alpha-particle emissions at discrete energi es can be fitted by the peak-shape functions generated by combining as ymmetric truncated exponential functions with a symmetric Gaussian dis tribution. These functions have been applied successfully by several w orkers. A correlation was previously found between the variance of the symmetric Gaussian portion of the fitting function, and the parameter characterising the principal exponential tailing function. The result s of a more detailed experimental study are reported, which involve va rying the angle and the distance between the source and the detector. This analysis shows that the parameters of the symmetric and asymmetri c parts of the fitted functions seem to depend on either the detector or the source. These parameters are influenced by the energy loss suff ered by the alpha-particles as well as by the efficiency of charge col lection in the solid-state detector.