3.2.2 Energy resolution

The energy resolution of a detector is a measure of its ability to distinguish between two x-ray photons having close energies. This is usually defined as the Full Width of a peak at Half the Maximum amplitude (FWHM).

The energy resolution is usually referred in XRS to the energy of Mn-Ka (5.89 keV). The resolution is measured experimentally by using a ⁵⁵Fe source positioned at a distance of the detector as to ensure a measurement intensity of 10 000 counts per second.

The overall resolution FWHM measured for a given spectrometer is influenced by the contribution from the detector intrinsic resolution FWHM_Det and by the electronic noise FWHM_Elec.