Background noise in a Cauchois-type high-resolution Compton scattering spectrometer at SPring-8 Original Research Article

We have experimentally evaluated the background noise in a Cauchois-type high-resolution Compton scattering spectrometer at SPring-8. The signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in the energy profile of Compton scattered X-rays from 3 mm thick Cu was found to be 78 at the Compton peak for the incident X-ray energy of 115 keV. The experimental S/N is in good agreement with the value of 80 estimated from simple considerations. The achieved S/N in the spectrometer is high enough for most Compton scattering experiments.