Thanks for the reply. However, my question remains. I read all these documents, but I still have these questions. I know where and what scalers.dat is, but what to put into it? What value should I take and where exactly should I put it? I find this confusing. Do I choose that value for all? Do I choose the value for last? Fitted or measured? What would I set in PeakSight? What do I put as the Cameca hardware dead time?
The values that you should have in the SCALERS.DAT file on line 35 for the Cameca integer "enforced" deadtimes are whatever the hardware deadtime values were when you made your deadtime calibration measurements. The point being that the integer hardware values force the deadtime to a rough "enforced" value but then for the software correction in PFE you want to use an actual measured value.
Which deadtime value from the regressions should one use? They should be quite similar but if not that may indicate a problem with the detector and then it gets complicated. Did you read Paul's documentation on his Excel dead time spreadsheet?
I guess I'll quote from my reference manual in case the post I linked to above wasn't clear enough:
Line 35 (Cameca integer deadtimes)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "Cameca integer deadtimes"
This line is used to explicitly specify the integer deadtime constants used to set the Cameca PHA hardware (non-extendible or "enforced" deadtime. Therefore this data is used only by the Cameca SX100/SXFive hardware interface and the values are not accessible from within the program. These integer deadtime values are distinct from the single precision deadtimes specified on line 72-77 below which are used to perform the actual deadtime correction in the analysis routines.
The typical procedure is to set the deadtimes on the Cameca PHA hardware all to zero and then to measure the "intrinsic" deadtime of the system using a range of beam currents from approximately 10 to 200 nA on a pure metal x-ray line such as Si Ka (PET and TAP) or Ti Ka (PET and LIF). A sufficient counting time should be used to obtain .2% precision or better. The best method is to find the "worst case" deadtime for each spectrometer since the deadtimes may vary somewhat as a function of detector bias and x-ray line energy.
Assume that the "intrinsic" deadtimes measured (when all spectrometers are set to "DTIM"=0) are 2.23, 3.14, 3.45, 3.78 and 2.15. The next step would be to set the DTIM deadtime parameter for each spectrometer to a value large enough to completely "mask" this intrinsic" deadtime, that is values of 3, 4, 4, 4 and 3. Now since these integer deadtime are not accurately set by the Cameca hardware, the operator must now re-run the deadtime calibration measurement using these new values and note the actual deadtimes. In this case depending on the instrument, the measured deadtimes will be somewhat larger, say, 3.75, 4.65, 4.12, 4.89 and 3.32.
In the example just described, the "DTIM" values of 3, 4, 4, 4 and 3 should be entered on line 35 for setting the Cameca hardware and the measured values that correspond to them, that is, 3.75, 4.65, 4.12, 4.89 and 3.32 should be entered on line 13 above to use in the software correction.
The integer "DTIM" deadtime values must be between zero and ten. If a value of zero is read, then the program will load the single precision deadtime from line 13 and truncate to integer each value for setting the Cameca PHA hardware to an approximate value.
Extended Format SCALERS.DAT Lines 42-83
Lines 42-65 (default baseline, window, gain and bias and deadtime PHA settings for each crystal)
0. 0. 0. 0. 1. 1. .3 .45 "default PHA baseline voltages1"
0. 0. 0. 0. 1. 1. 1. 1. "default PHA baseline voltages2"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA baseline voltages3"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA baseline voltages4"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA baseline voltages5"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA baseline voltages6"
0. 0. 0. 0. 9. 9. 9.7 8. "default PHA window voltages1"
0. 0. 0. 0. 9. 9. 9. 9. "default PHA window voltages2"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA window voltages3"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA window voltages4"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA window voltages5"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA window voltages6"
0. 0. 0. 0. 32. 16. 32. 64. "default PHA gain1"
0. 0. 0. 0. 32. 32. 64. 64. "default PHA gain2"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA gain3"
0 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA gain4"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA gain5"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default PHA gain6"
0. 0. 0. 0. 1674. 1764. 1750. 1650. "default detector bias1"
0. 0. 0. 0. 1750. 1800. 1800. 1700. "default detector bias2"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default detector bias3"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default detector bias4"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default detector bias5"
0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. "default detector bias6"
These lines are used to set the individual default PHA settings for the baseline, window, gain and bias on the different spectrometer and crystal basis. These crystal based parameter values replace the older default PHA settings in lines 24-27. The older values are still read and used as defaults for backward compatibility.
You only need to enter values for as many crystals as you have for each spectrometer (up to six crystals per spectrometer). The range of allowable values is the same as the PHA parameters for lines 24-27.
Lines 66-77 (default Inte/Diff mode and Deadtime PHA settings for each crystal)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes1"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes2"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes3"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes4"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes5"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default PHA inte/diff modes6"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes1"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes2"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes3"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes4"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes5"
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 "default detector deadtimes6"
These lines are used to set the individual default PHA settings for the inte/diff mode and deadtime on the different spectrometer and crystal basis. These crystal based deadtime parameter values replace the older default settings in line 13.