Dead-time losses in pulsed radiation fields

The usability of current active personal dosemeters is compromised in pulsed radiation fields due to dead-time effects. This paper presents methods to quantitatively predict dead-time behaviour for a given dosemeter in arbitrary radiation fields, which are derived from simple theoretical models. For several pulse shapes, simple numerical parameterisations based on Monte Carlo simulations are given. The case of multichannel dose measurement is discussed separately. It is shown that the use of several independent detectors can significantly improve the dosemeter performance.

► Dead-time effects for active personal dosemeters are studied theoretically, especially for pulsed radiation fields.
► For rectangular pulses, a novel empiric expression for the relative response is given.
► General pulse shapes are studied by Monte Carlo simulation, and numerical parameterisations are given.
► When using several independent detectors, the dosemeter performance can be improved significantly.