[1]

INTERACTIONS WITH MATTER

ABSORPTION OF BETA AND GAMMA RADIATION

The purpose of this experiment is to understand the interaction of radiation and matter, and the
application to radiation detection and shielding. The inverse square law of the distance is
demonstrated with the gamma radiation from Co
60

preparation, the half- value thickness and
absorption coefficient of various materials determined with the narrow beam system and the
corresponding mass attenuation coefficient calculated.
The natural environment involves nuclear radiation. Mankind has added to this by production of
nuclear power and by application of artificial radiation to medical and other uses. Detection
provides information about the radiation environment; shielding involves protection by confinement
of radiation or of vulnerable objects. Both involve crucially the specific interaction with matter of
various common radiation types.
Nature already provides essential shielding. The atmosphere and the earth's dipole magnetic field
protect us from external solar and galactic cosmic rays. The earth's matter contains most of the
natural radiation which provides significant heating of the interior. Artificial radiation (lifetimes
short compared to that of the earth) tend to be concentrated, and to require careful attention to
containment by shielding. Examples include fission power generation, medical radioisotope use for
diagnosis or treatment, X-radiation etc.
Common radioactive emission particles

Different radiations have different properties, as summarized below:

Co
60
















Radiation Type of Radiation
Mass
(AMU)
Charge Shielding material
Alpha Particle 4 +2 Paper, skin, clothes
Beta Particle 1/1836 1
Plastic, glass, light
metals
Gamma
Electromagnetic
Wave
0 0
Dense metal, concrete,
Earth
Neutrons Particle 1 0
Water,concrete,
polyethylene, oil


[2]


Fig. 1: Effective Shielding Materials for Various Radiation Type

The diagram above shows the important qualitative difference in material penetration between
charged (alpha and beta) and uncharged (gamma and neutron) particles, and also that slow-moving
charged particles (alpha) lose energy much more rapidly than fast (beta). More detailed discussion is
needed to understand origin of the various radiation types and the important variation of their
interaction rate with energy and with absorber element.
Alphas ( ) radiation of natural origin is emitted from heavy, unstable nuclei in a transmutation,
with conservation of total charge Z and mass number A (but not mass some is converted into the
decay kinetic energy). (The nucleus of the abundant helium isotope
4
He is an alpha particle 2
protons and 2 neutrons.) While easily absorbed themselves, their emission (usually in a radioactive
decay chain terminating in a lead isotope) is frequently accompanied by more penetrating betas, and
by still more penetrating gammas.

Betas ( ) also involve nuclear transmutation. They are identical to atomic electrons, but were
not pre-existing before emission. Their appearance is accompanied by that of an electron anti-
neutrino (or electron neutrino, if a positive electron (positron) is emitted).

Gammas ( ) do not involve nuclear transmutation, but a change in state like that involving
atomic photon emission, with the high energy nuclear photon emission maintaining the total
energy balance.

Neutrons ( n ) are nuclear constituents (with quark substructure). They are produced sometimes by
natural alpha bombardment of another nucleus and also, very copiously, in nuclear fission reactors
where they make the chain reaction chain (being able easily to enter a fissionable nucleus (235


[3]


uranium or 239 plutonium) by virtue of lack of charge).
The radioactive source experiment with () rays is Co
60
27
. The cobalt isotope Co
60
27
has a half-life of
5.26 years; it under-goes beta-decay to yield the stable nickel isotope Ni
60
28
- see Fig. 2.




















Fig. 2: Term Diagram of Co
60
27
.


As with most beta emitters, disintegration leads at first to daughter nuclei in an excited state, which
change to the ground state with the emission of gamma quanta. The gamma quanta which participate
in the same transition process have uniform energy, with the result that the gamma spectrum consists
of two discrete, sharp lines (Fig. 2).

The kinetic energy released corresponds to the difference between total nuclear rest mass in the
initial and final situations, and is shared among the three final particles. Because the
beta and neutrino are very light compared to the final nucleus, energy and momentum conservation
dictate that the new nucleus gets very little energy though it carries much linear momentum.
However, the other two (
-
and ) share the momentum and energy in various ways. Thus, there is
not a single kinetic energy, but a range from zero to a unique maximum.

Detection The goal is usually to obtain electrical signals, which can be sorted by size or timing for
analysis. A charged particle is necessary to interact with the detector matter, which may produce
ionization (as with the Geiger counter shown below, or a spark chamber, or a cloud chamber, or a
bubble chamber), UV photons (as with a NaI scintillating crystal or a liquid or solid plastic
scintillator coupled to a multi stage photomultiplier tube), electron-hole pairs (as with a single crystal

[4]


Si or Ge detector). If the primary radiation is not charged (neutron, gamma), detection depends on
interaction first to produce a moving charged particle, which will then generate the signal no
primary interaction, no signal.









Fig. 3: A Geiger tube detector. The center wire operates at +voltage, attracting primary electrons
released in the counter gas. For high enough voltage, a very strong field near the wire accelerates
electrons to produce secondaries, resulting in an avalanche and a large voltage pulse, independent of
initiating electron number.



Radiation detectors are used extensively in medical imaging (CAT, PET scanning etc), prospecting,
research, radiation safety monitoring, etc. Commercial devices of great sophistication are readily
available, owing to intense interest in nuclear energy release for peaceful and warlike purposes, and
to scientific interest in the structure of nuclei and in the characteristics and interactions of
elementary particles.


I. Law of Distance

Theory

The impulse counting rate N (r) per area A around a point-source decreases in inverse proportion to
the square of the distance provided the gamma quanta can spread out in straight lines and are not
deflected from their track by interactions.


1
2
1 2 1 2
1
2
4 2 A
r
r
A A r r

= = =



The reason for this is that, as shown by Fig. 4, the area of a sphere round the source through
with a beam of ray passes, increases as the square of the distance r. in the vacuum (in air), therefore

If we plot the counting rate (r) versus the distance r on a log-log scale, we obtain a straight line of
slope 2.

[5]





Fig. 4: Law of distance relating to rays
which are propagated in a straight line from
a point of source.







From the regression lines from the measured values in Fig. 4, applying the exponential expression


( )
b
r a r =


we obtain the value
b =-2.07 0.01
for the exponent

this thus proves the applicability of the inverse square law












Fig. 5: Counting rate plotted against
distance (log-log plot).









[6]


Experiment 1


Setup according to Fig. 6.
The distance between the front edge of the source rod and the counting tube window is
approximately 4cm; consequently, the absorption plates can be easily inserted into the radiation path.


Fig. 6: Experiment set-up for measuring the half-value thickness of different materials.






























Measure the impulse counting rate as a function of the distance between the source and the counter
tube. Plot the counting rate against distance (log log plot).






[7]


II. Absorption of and rays

An energetic electron can scatter easily from a nucleus, because it is so light, losing energy by
radiation (accelerated charged particles radiate). The radiation appears in a secondary
bremsstrahlung (braking radiation) photon. This process can be used to generate continuous
energy-spectrum X-rays. Also present would be atomic transition photons of definite energy
characteristic of the impacted material, typical refractory such as tungsten (W) or tantalum (Ta).
In a series of such interactions involving electrons and photons, a single primary entity of either type
may thus produce multiple secondary (tertiary, etc.) entities of lower and lower individual energy. A
spectacular example is the air shower produced by a very energetic cosmic ray proton, which
involves electrons and photons in increasing numbers and decreasing energies, spreading by
scattering to cover many square miles at ground level, where they can be detected as arising from a
single primary by their coincident arrival at widely separated plastic scintillation photomultiplier
detectors.
It makes sense to consider and rays together, though one is charged and the other not, because
each can release the other type in a cascade or shower involving more and more entities at lower and
lower energies. This is because both interact electromagnetically. In these processes it is important
to realize that electrons are forever for our purposes (conservation of leptons, light elementary
particles) , but photons may come and go. Electrons freed by gammas were previously bound to
atoms or molecules, whereas new photons can be created (or old ones vanish).

The gamma ray photon (energy related to frequency by Planck's constant: E =h ) has three
fundamental interactions, successively dominant as photon energy increases in the order:
a) photoelectric effect with atomic electron all photon energy transferred to electron,
primary photon disappears,
b) Compton effect photon interacts with free electron primary photon disappears and
secondary photon appears (lower energy), electron recoils with remaining energy,
c) pair production photon interacts with positively charged nucleus - primary photon
disappears and non-pre existing positron-electron pair (charge conserving) appear with
kinetic energy equal to excess over pair rest mass energy (1.02 MeV). Positron eventually
finds a different (atomic) electron and annihilates with emission of two gamma rays
photons, each with 0.511 MeV energy (conserving the rest mass energy of the annihilated
e
+
-e
-
pair).





[8]


Theory

The attenuation of the gamma rays or beta rays when they pass through an absorber of thickness d
is expressed by the exponential law

( )
( )
ud
e o N d N

=

,

Where (d) is the impulse counting rate after absorption in the absorber, and (o)

the impulse
counting rate when no absorber material and depends on the energy of the gamma quantum.

The relative contributions of these three effects to total absorption depends primarily on the energy of
the quanta and on the atomic number of the absorber (Fig. 7).










Fig. 7: Absorption of gamma rays by leads as
a function of the energy (
Co
=fraction due to
Compton effect
Ph
=fraction due to
photoelectric effect
Pa
=fraction due to pair .
formation). The total absorption coefficient
(attenuation coefficient) =
Co +

PH +

Pa














We can see from the /E curves in the Fig. 7 that lead is particularly suitable as an absorber of
gamma rays of low or high energy.

[9]





The attenuation of the gamma rays therefore takes place predominantly in the electron shell of the
absorber atoms. The absorption coefficient should therefore be proportional to the number of
electrons in the shell per unit volume, or approximately proportional to the density of of the
material.


The mass attenuation coefficient / is therefore roughly the same for the different materials.

Lead: ( = 11.34gcm
-3
)
=0.62cm
-1
, s

=0.009 cm
-1

d
1/2
=1.12cm, sd
1/2
=0.02 cm
/ = 0.055cm
2
g
-1
s
/
=0.001cm
2
g
-1


Aluminium: ( = 2.69gcm
-3
)
=0.15cm
-1
, s

=0.001 cm
-1

d
1/2
=4.6cm, sd
1/2
=0.3 cm
/ = 0.056cm
2
g
-1
s
/
=0.004cm
2
g
-1


Iron: ( = 7.86gcm
-3
)
=0.394cm
-1
, s

=0.006 cm
-1

d
1/2
=1.76cm, sd
1/2
=0.03 cm
/ = 0.050cm
2
g
-1
s
/
=0.001cm
2
g
-1


Concrete: ( = 2.35gcm
-3
)
=0.124cm
-1
, s

=0.009 cm
-1

d
1/2
=5.6cm, sd
1/2
=0.4 cm
/ = 0.053cm
2
g
-1
s
/
=0.004cm
2
g
-1


Plexiglass: ( = 1.119gcm
-3
)
=0.078cm
-1
, s

=0.004 cm
-1

d
1/2
=8.9cm, sd
1/2
=0.5 cm
/ = 0.066cm
2
g
-1
s
/
=0.003cm
2
g
-1














[10]








Fig. 8: Impulse counting rate as a function
of the thickness d of the absorber. The half-value
thickness d
1/2
of tha material is defined as the
thickness at which the impulse counting rate is
reduced by half, and can be calculated from the
absorption coefficient in accordance with

2
2 1
In
d
/
=


From the regression lines from the measured values in Fig. 8 we obtain the following values for the
=b and for d
1/2
and / with the relevant standard errors, using the exponential expression

2
2 1
In
d
/
=


From the regression lines from the measured values in Fig. 8 we obtain the following values for d
1/2

and /, with the relevant standard errors, using the exponential expression


ae
N
bd
=

The net result, for betas and gammas, is pretty closely exponential absorption

, with the coefficient
depending on absorber material.




[11]


Experiment 2.

The procedure and evaluation are shown here for an exemplary experiment for -quanta; however,
they can also be performed in an analogous manner for electrons. In the latter case, the Sr-90 source
rod from the radioactive sources set (09047.50) and the absorption plate set for -radiation
(909024.00) must be used.

Begin by counting the background for one minute to check that the equipment operates properly. The
background is partly from cosmic rays and partly from radioactive materials, which are normally
present in the ground and in building materials.

The -rays from
60
Co can easily be shielded. Put one of the thin aluminum absorbers (made of four
ply aluminum foil) on a tray between the counter and the source. Count for one minute. Add more
of the thin aluminum absorbers and determine the counting rate each time, until the counting rate
becomes approximately constant. Hence, to establish this background constant counting rate
accurately, eventually leaving a background due mainly to
60
Co gammas which are little affected by
the thin aluminum absorber.

Determine the half-value thickness d
1/2
and absorption coefficient.