Development of a correction method for the time-of-flight prompt gamma-ray analysis.

A new analytical technique, time-of-flight prompt gamma-ray analysis, has been developed at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex. In order to apply it to accurate elemental analysis, a set of Fe and Au reference samples were measured to examine the several factors which affect the number of detected events. It was found that major contributing factors included attenuations of neutrons and gamma rays in the sample, live-time fraction and signal pile-up correction. A simulation model was built for the estimation of neutron and gamma-ray attenuations. A simple empirical formula was proposed to calculate the signal pile-up correction factor. The whole correction method has proven to be accurate and reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]