SPECTRAL NOISE DISTORTION IN PHOTOELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY BY ACQUIRING DATA WITH MULTIDETECTOR SYSTEMS

Acquiring data with multidetector systems leads in many cases to spect ral distortion. The reason is the possible misfit in the energy separa tions of the detectors and the chosen energy step width. We present fo rmulae for calculating the spectral distortion from the distances of t he single detectors for two different methods of data treatment. From the formulae we can estimate the spectral distortion for typical condi tions. Numerical simulations show that both methods affect not signifi cant the resolution for typical conditions. The partitioning of the co llected data between energy channels can result in a reducing of the n oise to 30% of the true noise. We present a general formula for calcul ating this smoothing effect caused by the apportioning method, which i s important for a correct statistical treatment of such distorted spec tra. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.