PHOTON COUNT DYNAMIC RANGE DETERMINATION FOR OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE DECAY MEASUREMENTS IN YAP: Mn

Abstract

Margins of photon counting dynamic range have been determined experimentally for a photomultiplier tube operating in a setup for pulsed optically stimulated luminescence measurement. An effect of light exposure on the dark count has been taken into account as an addition limitation for the upper limit of light flux. The experiments have revealed that the dispersion of individual dark count readings is weakly affected by light exposure up to 6∙10⁵ s^–1,while the mean dark count is increasing. These results are used for optimizing the measurement procedure for luminescence decay.

Key words: photon counting, pulse pair resolution, dark count fluctuations, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), pulse mode OSL