Doublet peak area determination in NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometry using maximum likelihood estimation.

Abstract: A method has been studied for the analysis of the pulse-height spectrum of a mixed 134Cs and 137Cs source obtained with a NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer. A peak fitting technique using maximum likelihood estimation was used with a specially developed deconvolution computer program. The activities obtained by this program were compared with the reference value in order to validate the analysis algorithm. Peak-area determination for NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometry was successfully carried out even for spectra that included peak doublet and were recorded with low statistics. The results obtained by the maximum likelihood estimation agreed with each reference value within their statistical uncertainties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]