Finding four decay components in Li glass and three decay components in CeBr₃ scintillation light pulses in the temperature range from −30 °C to +50 °C by iterative subtraction of composite decays

Basic photon count statistics are considered in order to point out problems in the evaluation of decay times of scintillator light pulses. Furthermore, numerical aspects and problems are discussed for two numerical evaluation methods, the least squares fit of exponential decays and the iterative subtraction. Both are then applied to find four decay components in Li glass scintillator pulses and three decay components in CeBr₃ scintillator pulses. Their temperature dependence and relative intensities in the range between −30 °C and +50 °C are presented.