NUCLEAR

INSTRUMENTS
& METHODS
IN PHYSICS
RESEARCH

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 336 (1993) 273-277

North-Holland

Section A

Statistical properties of a peak-search algorithm for -y-ray

spectrometry as related to Currie's detection limits
M. Blaauw

Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Delft Uniuersity of Technology, Mekelweg IS, 1629 JB Delft, The Netherlands

Received 1 February 1993 and in revised form 29 April 1993

Most peak-search algorithms for y-ray spectrometry are based on digital filters, and most of them resemble the Routti-Prussin
filter. The statistical properties of this filter must be known to determine detection limits correctly. Its properties were therefore
studied as a function of peak width, background level and differential nonlinearity of the ADC using simulated spectra, and they
were found not to be as expected from simple statistical considerations . These deviations were modelled, resulting in formulas
yielding Currie's critical level Lc and detection limit LD as a function of peak width and background level.
1. Introduction
The search for peaks is the first step in the reduction of -y-ray spectra. Peaks which are not detected in
this stage will not contribute to the calculation of
concentrations or activities later on . It is therefore the
peak-search algorithm that primarily determines the
detection limits of the technique as a whole. Curiously,
upper limits for the area of a peak that were not
observed in the spectrum are generally not determined
taking the properties of the peak-search algorithm into
account [1-31, but rather by assuming that the peaksearch algorithm is "perfect".
It may be as incorrect as it is common in this
context to approximate the Poisson distribution present in all spectrum channels by a normal distribution
with standard deviation equal to the square root of the
channel content. Especially for weak photopeaks, measured in the presence of a very low background, this
approximation may lead to inaccurate results.
Most peak-search algorithms boil down to digital
filters that transform the measured spectrum . The filters are all used in the same way: For each channel of
the spectrum, the filter output divided by its uncertainty is calculated. The calculation of each new channel content will involve 2m + 1 original channel contents; m is called the filter width in this paper. The
filter coefficients of the Routti-Prussin filter [41 are
obtained directly from the second derivate of a Gaussian function with the same width as the width of the
peaks looked for.
In the filtered spectrum, local minima (maxima in
the case of a correlation filter) are looked for. If the
minimum exceeds a threshold, a peak is considered to

be detected . Low thresholds lead to a high probability

of detecting peaks where only noise is present (type 1
error), high thresholds reduce the probability of detecting a peak which is present (type 2 error) . The value
chosen for the threshold depends on the purpose of
the measurements .
The statistical properties to be known of a peaksearch algorithm are the probabilities of making a type
1 error and of making a type 2 error, both as a function
of background, peak width w (to avoid confusion, the Q
of the Gaussian function representing the shape of the
peaks is called the peak width w in this paper) and
differential nonlinearity of the ADC. The type 2 error
probability also depends on the "true" peak area . The
type 1 error probability is of less importance, because
fitting and interpretation methods in later stages of the
handling of the data will intercept it, but it was measured anyway . The type 2 error probability was measured and modelled as a function of background, peak
area and peak width.
2. Experimental
The properties of the Routti-Prussin filter were
measured using simulated spectra. The error function,
erf(x)

f ~o- 2~ e-t`-w)Z/2Z dt,

x

where lt, = centroid parameter and o- = width parameter, commonly used to model the probability of detecting a signal in the presence of noise, was used to
describe the probability of detecting a peak, given
background, peak width and nonlinearity, as a function

0168-9002/93/$06.00 (0 1993 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V . All rights reserved

274

M. Blaauw / Peak-search algonthm for y-ray spectrometry

of the statistical significance Z of the peak as measured using the filter .

Defining the expected output O of the filter for a
peak with area 1 by
m

,- _ ,

w 2a

e -"/2WZ ,

where c, = filter coefficient i, w = width parameter of

peaks to locate, m = filter width parameter, defining
the uncertainty U in this output by
U2 -

m
I
-,2/2,2,
Y_ c2 -e
w 27r
e = -m

and defining the norm I F I of the filter by

F 1 2 --_

~" c?,

r=-m

(4)

the expected output divided by its uncertainty, which is

the statistical significance Z of the peak as measured
using the filter, is given by
Z

=AO/VAU2 + F 12,
bJ

where A = the area of the peak, b = background under

the peak.
For any combination of peak width w and background b, areas were computed to obtain Z-values of 0
up to 5 with steps of 0.5 . For the Z-value of 0, 100
spectra were generated and subjected to the peaksearch algorithm to obtain a good estimate of the
probability of making type 1 errors . For other Z-values,
40 spectra were used to obtain the probability of detecting the peak . All generated spectra were 50 channels wide.
The background in the spectra was generated by
first computing the total number of background counts
in the spectrum, and subsequently placing each count
in a channel chosen randomly. This resulted in a virtually perfect Poisson distribution of the channel contents.
If a differential nonlinearity d of the ADC was to
be simulated, the channel widths were changed by
adding a random value, taken from a normal distribution with mean 0 and standard deviation d/ ~T, to
each channel width and subtracting half of the random
value from the widths of the neighbouring channels .
This resulted in the average channel width remaining
1, the standard deviation becoming d and nevertheless
the total width of the channels remaining constant and
no gaps or overlaps between channels arising. The
resulting widths of neighbouring channels were strongly
correlated . The probability of a count being added to a
channel content was then made to be proportional to
the channel width.
Afterwards, the peaks were added using ten times
the number of counts to be expected in the peak. Each

count was subsequently added to the spectrum if a

random number, drawn from a homogeneous distribution between 0 and 1, was smaller than 0.1 . The channel where the count was to be placed was obtained by
drawing random numbers from a normal distribution
with width w and comparing these numbers to the
channel numbers and widths. The peak position, i.e .
the mean of this normal distribution was set to 25 .5 in
all cases. This resulted in Gaussian peaks with width w,
virtually perfect Poisson distributions of the channel
contents and a roughly approximated Poisson distribution of the total peak areas.
The coefficients of the filter used by the peak-search
algorithm were obtained from the second derivate of a
Gaussian with a width equal to the width of the peaks,
and a threshold value of - 2 was used to decide
whether a peak was detected . If so, the channel with
the minimum content was reported as the peak position . If three or more adjacent channels had the same
minimum content, the middle channel was reported . If
this channel was within the peak width w of the peak
position, the generated peak was considered to be
detected . This means that for a w value of 0.01 and 0.5
only one channel was regarded, but for w values of 1, 2
and 5 ranges of 3, 5 and 11 channels respectively were
involved .
The error function was fitted to the measured probabilities as a function of Z by least-squares techniques,
yielding estimates for A and o, for each combination of
background and peak width.
3. Results
3.1 . The values of tt (no differential nonlinearity)
The values for h without differential nonlinearity
were measured as a function of background and peak
width. For narrow peaks, A was found to be equal to
the threshold level of the peak-search algorithm as was
to be expected . It was observed that le does not depend on the background, but only on peak width. It
was therefore considered justifiable to compute the
unweighted mean value of b, and its external error for
each value of w.
A model for the dependence of A on w was derived
as follows: If more than one channel as reported by the
peak-search algorithm is considered when deciding
whether a peak has been detected, the probability of
detection is amplified. This amplification is described
by
w

where o = the probability of peak detection in the

peak centre channel, 6 = the probability of peak detec-

M. Blaauw / Peak-search algorithm for y-ray spectrometry

27 5

for a value of (3 of 97 .5% . The difference between the

two k-values is twice the value of Q. Values for o, thus
obtained are also shown in table 1 .
3 .2. The values of o, (no differential nonlinearity)

Fig . l . Relation between k-value and o .

tion in any channel within the peak width w, r, = factor
resulting from the correlation between filter outputs at
the centre channel and at channels removed i or less
channels from it, r, = factor resulting from the decrease of the detection probability in channel i as
channel i is further removed from the centre channel .
The correlation factor r, is 0 for i = 0 and is defined
for other i by

r2 =
'

-t

The values for o- were also measured as a function

of peak width and background . Surprisingly, it was
observed that o- does not depend as much on the peak
width as w does, but does depend on the background .
This must be the result of the fact that, for very low
channel contents, the Poisson distribution does not
resemble a normal distribution at all . For high background values, o, was found to approach its expected
value of 1, in agreement with the calculated values in
table 1 .
Even though a slight dependence of o- on the peak
width was observed, it was deemed to be of practical
importance only to find a relation between background
and o- . To do this, mean values of o, were determined
for each background value . An empirical relation was
found given by
o,=0 .65 +0 .35(1- (bg + 1)

gz(i, o)
(7)

where 92 is the second derivate of the Gaussian function, normalized to get 9 2 (0 1 o- ) = 1 . The relative probability decrease factor r, is defined by
gr, = erf(t - 21t1 0- ))l 6 01

where t = the threshold of the peak-search algorithm

(t < 0) .
The Z-value N, per definition corresponds to a
detection probability of 50% . From this value of ,
the corresponding value of /3 o can be determined by
iterative procedures. The value of /3 o will be less than
50% . From the value of o, a k-value can be obtained
using the normal distribution, as illustrated in fig. 1 .
Finally, the modelled value of A is given by

-025) .

(10)

The quality of this empirical relation can be assessed in fig . 2 . The values of o, obtained as described
in the preceding paragraph need to be corrected using
eq . (10) before they can be used to obtain detection
limits .
3.3. The probability of making a type 1 error
This probability can be obtained from the values of
p, and o- as reported in the preceding paragraphs . If
A, = 2 and o- = 1, for example, the probability of detecting a peak with area 0 and resulting statistical significance 0 is 2 .5% . The very low values of o- at low
backgrounds correspond to lower probabilities, the low
values for A at high peak widths to higher probabilities
of making a type 1 error .

A=k-t .
In table 1, the h,-values thus obtained are shown along
with the measured values . Values for o, can also be
obtained from this model by finding a second k-value

,.00
0.90

Table 1
Measured and predicted values of g
Q

w measured

w calculated

Q calculated

0.01
0.5
1
2
5
10

1 .97+0.03
0.03
2.03 0 .03

2.00
2.00
1.92
1.77
1 .67
1 .53

1.00
1.00
1.00
1.01
1.03
1.00

2.03+0.05
0.05
1.72+0.05
0.05
1 .66+0.03
0.03
1.52+0.05

1 .10

0.80
070
060
0.50

log (b + 1)

Fig. 2. Empirical relation between Q and background .

27 6

M. Blaauw / Peak-search algorithm for y-ray spectrometry

between neighbouring channels . In the Fourier transformed spectrum, its contribution is maximal in the
same region where the contribution of a Gaussian with
width 1 is maximal. This means that at high peak
widths, the influence of the nonlinearity will be
smoothed away by a peak-search filter matched to the
peak width, but at peak width 1 its influence will not
be reduced at all. This explains the low value of A at
peak width 1 (which is mainly due to the high probability of making a type 1 error of 20%) as well as the
general trends shown in figs . 3 and 4.

with and without differential non-linearity

- d-0
------ d - 0.01
250

200

1 .50

simulated peak width

Fig. 3. Values of tc obtained with and without differential
nonlinearity at a background level of 10 4 counts .
3.4. Differential nonlinearity

As expected, the influence of differential nonlinearity of the ADC was found to increase with the background level. The results obtained with a background
level of 10 4 counts for ,u, and Q, respectively, are shown
in figs . 3 and 4.
The results obtained for a peak width of 0.01 channel can easily be modelled by considering the nonlinearity to be a source of noise of which the magnitude is
the product of background b and nonlinearity d . For a
background of 10 4 counts and a nonlinearity d = 0 .01,
this noise adds up with the Poisson noise for o- total of
140. At this peak width, the value of )u only depends
on the threshold of the peak-search algorithm, but the
value of Q is proportional to the noise in the channel
contents, and thus raised by a factor 1 .4 .
The nonlinearity is not a source of "white" noise,
because of the strong negative correlations introduced
a with and without differential non-linearity
- d -0

------

d - 0.01

simulated peak width

Fig 4. Values of Q obtained with and without differential
nonlinearity at a background level of 10 4 counts .

4. Discussion
The critical level Lc as defined by Currie, in terms
of peak areas, is the peak area which is expected to just
exceed the decision criterion (the choice of the decision criterion is based on the probability a of making a
type 1 error), thus has a probability of 50% to be
detected and corresponds to the N,-value as defined in
this work. The area can be computed from the It-value
using eq . (5). In his paper, Currie states that Lc must
be 0 if the background is 0. In practice, this is only true
if the peak-search algorithm a priori knows the background level to be 0. If this is not the case, the
algorithm has to decide what is more probable : whether
it is looking at a spurious counts stemming from a
background level between 0 and 1, or at a count
stemming from a peak . This leads to non-zero critical
levels in the case of the Prussin-Routti and similar
filters.
The detection limit L p as defined by Currie, in
terms of peak areas, is the peak area with a probability
(3 of being overlooked, given the decision criterion or
the corresponding probability a. Choosing both a and
(3 to be 2.5%, the threshold level of the Prussin-Routti
filter is -2 and the detection limit p, + 2o,, W and o- as
defined in this work. The p + 2o, level can also be
converted to a peak area using eq . (5). It should be
noted that Z is not a linear function of the peak area,
and it would therefore be erroneous to separately
convert A and a, and calculate l.r, + 2o- in terms of
areas afterwards .
From simple statistical considerations, one would
expect the value of lr to be always equal to the threshold value of the peak-search algorithm, and the value
of o- to be always 1 in the absence of differential
nonlinearity of the ADC. In practice, neither is true .
The value of w is lowered by a "peak width boost",
and the value of a by differences between the Poisson
and the normal distribution . Both effects are now
under control for the Prussin-Routti filter . The formulas provided in this work can be used to accurately
calculate Currie's critical level L, and his detection
limit LD. It should be noted however that differential

M. Blaauw / Peak-search algonthm for y-ray spectrometry

nonlinearity of the ADC, i.e . differences between its

channel widths, deteriorates the detection limit. This
property of the ADC is systematic for each channel
and therefore very difficult to deal with. It enhances
the sensitivity for some peaks, but deteriorates the
sensitivity for others . The w of the error function,
corresponding to the critical level Lc , does suffer from
it slightly, but the Q is strongly affected . The fact that
the influence of differential nonlinearity diminishes
when the peak width increases is a strong argument in
favour of 8192 (or more) channel ADCs as compared
to 4096 channel ADCs .
In his paper, Currie criticizes those who think of
detection limits as having only one reliability, because
LD depends on the two confidence levels a and /3 . In
my opinion however, a statement like "this detection
limit is the concentration level with a probability of
97.5% of being detected" can be correct. The 97 .5%
covers both a and /3 .
5. Conclusions
The statistical behaviour of peak-search algorithms
based on digital filters is not as simple as one would
expect . For the Prussin-Routti filter, differences between the Poisson and the normal distribution dimin-

27 7

ish the probability of finding a very small peak on a

very low background, but amplify the probability of
finding larger peaks on very low backgrounds. When
the peaks get to be wider than one channel, all detection probabilities are amplified because the peak can
be detected in more than one channel.
These deviations from straightforward statistical behaviour can be dealt with by empirical formulas .
The influence of differential nonlinearity is difficult
to deal with for peak widths close to 1 . For wide peaks
(w > 2) it is negligible . This is a strong argument in
favour of ADCs with as many channels as possible, as
long as the increase of the number of channels is not
matched by an increase of the differential nonlinearity
of the ADC.
Currie's critical level L, is not 0 when the background is 0 for the type of peak-search algorithms
considered in this paper.
References
[1] L.A . Currie, Anal . Chem . 40 (3) (1968) 586.
[2] F.T . Avignone III, Nucl . Instr. and Meth . A 245 (1986)
525.
[3] O. Helene, Nucl . Instr. and Meth . A 300 (1991) 132.
[4] J.T . Routti and S.G . Prussin, Nucl . Instr. and Meth . 76
(1969) 109.