Spectrometer energy resolution

The recorded XRF spectra show peaks that span some 10-20 channels, with nearly a Poisson distribution. Such spread is conditioned by the fluctuations in judging the pulse amplitude due to the intrinsic variation in detector response and due to the electronic noise of the system.

Each peak can be characterized by a width defined as the full width at half-maximum (FWHM). This parameter is called spectral resolution.

Conventionally, the resolution is only specified for the Mn- Kα peak (5.9 keV). The resolution is one of the parameters that should be periodically checked, as a criterion of the performance of a particular spectrometer.