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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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1
Lecture 5
INTERACTION OF GAMMA
RAYS
PNRA Course on
Radiation Safety
Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Interaction of Gamma Rays
Lecture contents
Interaction Mechanisms
Photoelectric absorption
Compton scattering
Pair production
Gamma ray Attenuation
Attenuation coefficient
Absorber mass thickness
Buildup

PNRA Course on
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Interaction Mechanism
Interaction processes
Major processes of interaction of -rays with
matter are
Photoelectric absorption
Compton scattering
Pair production
Gamma rays interact with
Atom as whole,
Electron in atom shell, or
Nucleus of atom
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Interaction Mechanism conti.
All these processes lead to
partial or complete transfer of -rays photon
energy to electron energy
sudden or abrupt changes in -ray photon
history
either complete disappearance of photons,
or scattering with less amount of energy
Unlike charged particles, ray energy
transfer is abrupt
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Photoelectric Absorption
Process
A photon undergoes an interaction with
absorber atom, the photon is completely
absorbed.
A photoelectron is ejected by the atom from
one of its bound shells.
Interaction can not take place with free
electrons
Interaction takes part with atom as a whole
(to conserve energy and momentum)
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Photoelectric Absorption conti.
Energy of photoelectron
E
e-
= hv E
b
hv = energy of gamma rays
E
b
= electron binding energy
The most probable origin of photoelectron is
K-shell of the atom
in 80%cases ejection is from K-shell
Plot of t vs E and absorption edges
If photon energy is equal to the binding energy
of K-shell electron, then there is sudden drop in
probability
K edge and L edge are the prominent
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Photoelectric Absorption conti.

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Photoelectric Absorption conti.
Photoelectric cross section (t )
Approximate relation for t is




Z = At No. of absorber
n = 45 depends on ray energy
Interaction prob. is more for
Low energy photons
visible light, x rays & soft -rays
High Z material (Pb, U etc)
5 . 3
tan

t
E
Z
t cons
n
=
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Photoelectric Absorption conti.
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Photoelectric Absorption conti.
The number of photoelectric interactions/
cm
2
.s is



where
I = intensity of gamma rays incident on target
[s/cm
2
.s]
N = Atoms per unit volume of target [atoms/cm
3
]
o
pe
= photoelectric interaction cross section per
atom

pe
IN
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Photoelectric Absorption conti.
Associated processes
Ionization & excitation by photoelectron
Emission of characteristic X-rays
Further photoelectric absorption and emission of
secondary photoelectron
Emission of Auger electrons
Ionization & excitation by Auger electrons
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Compton Scattering
Process
In this process an incident photon transfers
a part of its energy to an orbital electrons of
absorbing material.
The electron is ejected from the atom.
The photon is scatted with less energy at
some angle with the initial direction of the
incident photon.

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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Compton Scattering conti.
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Compton Scattering conti.
Using the simultaneous equations for the
conservation of energy and momentum, energy
of the scattered photon is




Probability per atom of absorber depends on
number of electrons
Prob. of Compton scattering falls off gradually
with increase of energy
) cos 1 ( 1
2
u +
=
'
c m
hv
hv
v h
o
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Compton Scattering conti.
In Compton scattering, the photon interacts
with individual electron, therefore cross section
is defined per electron,
e
o
C

The maximum value of
e
o
C
is 2/3 b at E=0, which
is called Thomson cross section, o
T

The Compton cross
section per atom is
Overall cross section
is given by

e
o
C
as a function of energy is shown in figure

C e C
Z o o =
E
Z
C
o
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Compton Scattering conti.
The Compton cross section per electron as a function
of gamma ray energy
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Compton Scattering conti.
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Compton Scattering conti.
Associated processes
Multiple interactions of
Scattered photon by photoelectric effect
Recoil electrons
Back scattering of initial or scattered
photons.
Include all the processes associated with
photoelectric effect.
Multiple scattering
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Pair Production
Process
In this process a
photon disappears
and an electron pair
(a positron and
electron) is created
The threshold energy for the process is 2m
o
c
2

= 1.022 MeV
Pair production can take place in the vicinity of
a Coulomb field, in most of the case it is the
field of nucleus
Z
e
+
e
-
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Pair Production conti.
Practically E must be greater than 2 MeV
Kinetic energy of electron and positron


Excess energy is shared between electron
and positron as kinetic energy




022 . 1 = +
+

E E E
e e
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Pair Production conti.
Cross section
The dependence of pair production cross
section is follows:


When E > 1.022 MeV, cross section for pair
production o
pp
increases steadily with
increasing energy, and atomic number of
medium atoms
Cross section vs. Energy is shown
graphically
( )
2
022 . 1 Z E
pp
o
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Pair Production conti.
The pair production cross section of lead as a
function of gamma ray energy
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Pair Production conti.
Annihilation
At the end of its path, the positron
annihilates with electron and two
annihilation photons of energy 0.511 MeV
are emitted in opposite direction

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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Pair Production conti.
Interaction of annihilation photons
Photoelectric effect
Compton scattering
Accompanied processes
All the processes of photoelectric and pair
production interactions

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Three types of Gamma ray interactions
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Gamma Ray Attenuation
Transmission Experiment
Gamma ray photons are removed from the
beam due to absorption or scattering.
Photons are removed under a fixed prob.
per unit path length called linear attenuation
coefficient
The removal prob. is given by
) . ( ) ( ) . ( P P Compton E P k o t + + =
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
The intensity of transmitted photons is
given by


I transmitted intensity (
s
/cm
2
s)
I
o
intensity without an absorber (
s
/cm
2
s)
t absorber thickness (cm)
linear attenuation coefficient (cm
-1
)
Probability to attenuate gamma rays per unit
path length

t
e I I

=
0
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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Mass attenuation coefficient
varies with density of the absorber even
though the materials is same.

m
= / (cm
2
/g) does not change with
physical state of material e.g. it is same for
ice, H
2
O and steam

m
for a compound or mixture of elements
can be calculate from

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
|
|
.
|

\
|
i
i
w

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Dr. Muhammad Tufail
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Mean free path
The average distance traveled in the
absorber before an interaction can take
place (cm).

Half value thickness
It is the distance in which the radiation
intensity is reduced to half of the value w/o
absorber (cm)

1
=

2 ln
2 / 1
= t
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Absorber mass thickness
t
m
= t : is called mass thickness of absorber
(g/cm
2
)
The absorber with equal mass thickness
carry equal # of electrons.
For charged particles the stopping power
and range are roughly same for materials
that do not differ greatly in Z.
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Buildup Factor (B)
With reference to transmission experiment,
buildup factor is given by


Transmitted intensity in this case is



1
U S U
U S
B
| | |
| |
+
= = +
0
t
I BI e

=
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Photon Build up
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Gamma Ray Attenuation conti.
Bad geometry:
An arrangement of source, shield and
detector in which the scattered and un
scattered photons reach the detector is
called bad geometry
Good geometry:
An arrangement of source, shield and
detector in which only un scattered photons
reach the detector is called good geometry