In addition to lowering the detection efficiency, dead times can have other effects, such as creating possible exploits in quantum cryptography.
The analog electronics can also introduce dead time; in particular a shaping spectroscopy amplifier needs to integrate a fast rise, slow fall signal over the longest possible time (usually 0.5–10 microseconds) to attain the best possible resolution, such that the user needs to choose a compromise between event rate and resolution.
Finally, digitisation, readout and storage of the event, especially in detection systems with large number of channels like those used in modern High Energy Physics experiments, also contribute to the total dead time.
To alleviate the issue, medium and large experiments use sophisticated pipelining and multi-level trigger logic to reduce the readout rates.
A detector, or detection system, can be characterized by a paralyzable or non-paralyzable behaviour.
[1] In a non-paralyzable detector, an event happening during the dead time is simply lost, so that with an increasing event rate the detector will reach a saturation rate equal to the inverse of the dead time.
In a paralyzable detector, an event happening during the dead time will not just be missed, but will restart the dead time, so that with increasing rate the detector will reach a saturation point where it will be incapable of recording any event at all.
A semi-paralyzable detector exhibits an intermediate behaviour, in which the event arriving during dead time does extend it, but not by the full amount, resulting in a detection rate that decreases when the event rate approaches saturation.
[4] It will be assumed that the events are occurring randomly with an average frequency of f. That is, they constitute a Poisson process.
With a modern microprocessor based ratemeter one technique for measuring field strength with detectors (e.g., Geiger–Müller tubes) with a recovery time is Time-To-Count.
This technique is used quite widely in radiation monitoring systems used in nuclear power generating stations.
and Naftilan, S.A., "Determining Photometric Dead Time by Using Hydrogen Filters", Astron.