Monitoring fluctuations at a synchrotron beamline using matched ion chambers: 1. Modelling, data collection, and deduction of simple measures of association

Abstract

The flux brightness and temporal characteristics of an x-ray source often define its utility for a specific experiment However, there are numerous contributions to the statistics of a beam as observed by a particular detector and associated electronics. The significance of these fluctuations is often neglected, with a consequent loss of precision or accuracy of up to two orders of magnitude. An understanding of the detected statistics for a given arrangement (and the means for optimizing this) can make the difference between a successful experiment and a much more limited investigation. We explain the method for measuring a wide variety of important statistical contributions to high accuracy..