2nd Semester,

MSc (Radiological Physics), 2021

RP2.1 : Radiation Physics:

Interaction of Radiation with Matter
Lesson-4

Kalyanee Boruah
14 July, 2021
 Syllabus
Interaction of charged particles with matter :

Classical theory of inelastic collision with atomic
electrons.

Energy loss per ion pair by primary and
secondary ionization-

Dependence of collision energy losses on the
physical and chemical state of the absorber-

Cerenkov radiation-

Electron absorption process- Scattering
excitation and ionization-

Radiative collision- Bremmstrahlung-
 Review : The Bethe-Bloch Formula
The correct quantum-mechanical calculation was first
performed by Bethe, Bloch and other authors. In the
calculation the energy transfer is parametrized in terms
of momentum transfer rather than the impact
parameter. This, of course, is more realistic since the
momentum transfer is a measurable quantity whereas
the impact parameter is not. The formula obtained is,

(1)

Equation (13) is commonly known as the Bethe-Bloch

formula. In practice.
 Mass stoping power
When dE/dx is expressed in units of mass thickness, it is
found to vary little over a wide range of materials.
Indeed, if we make the dependence on material type
more evident in the Bethe-Bloch formula, we find

(2)

where d = dx. For not too different Z, the ratio (Z/A), in

fact, varies little. This is also true of the dependence on
I(Z) since it appears in a logarithm. dE/d, therefore, is
almost independent of material type. A 10 MeV proton,
for example, will lose about the same amount of
energy in 1 g/cm2 of copper as it will in 1 g/cm2 of
aluminium or iron, etc.
 dE/dx for Mixtures and Compounds
The dE/dx formula which we have given so far applies to
pure elements. For compounds and mixtures, if
accurate, values are desired, one must resort to direct
measurements; however, a good approximate value
can be found in most cases by averaging dE/dx over
each element in the compound weighted by the
fraction of electrons belonging to each element
{Bragg's Rule). Thus
(3)

where w1, w2, etc. are the fractions by weight of

elements 1,2, ... in the compound. More explicitly,
if ai is the number of atoms of the ith element in
the molecule M, then,
where Ai is the atomic weight of ith element,
By expanding equation (3) explicitly and regrouping
terms, we can define effective values for Z, A, I, etc.
which may be used directly in equation (1).
 Energy Straggling
The stopping power equations do not contain information
about the statistical variations in the energy lost by the
incident particles. In fact, due to this statistical effect, a
mono-energetic beam of incident particles gets a finite
width in its energy distribution as it travels through the
medium. The effect is known as energy straggling and
can be represented by a Gaussian distribution for thick
absorbers
(4)

Here α is known as the straggling parameter.

 Range
The maximum energy that can be transferred from a charged
particle of mass 'M' and Kinetic energy 'E' to an electron of
mass 'mo' in a single collission is 4Emo/M, or about 1/500 of
the particle energy per nucleon.
This is a small fraction of total energy and the primary particle
must suffer many such interactions during its passage
through the absorber. At any given time, the particle is
interacting with many electrons, so that the net effect is to
decrease its velocity continuously until the particle is
stopped.
Charged particles are not greatly deflected by any one
encounter as interactions occur in alldirections
simultaneously, so particle tracks are quite straight except
at their very end. Charged particles are therefore
characterised by a definite range in a given absorber. It is
the distance beyond which no particle will penetrate.
Cloud chamber tracks of a particles from the decay of 210Po.
Experimentally, the range can be determined by passing
a beam of particles at the desired energy through
different thicknesses of the absorber and measuring
the ratio of transmitted to incident particles.[see fig].
For small thicknesses, practically all the particles
manage to pass through. As the range is approached
this ratio drops. However, the ratio does not drop
immediately to the background level. Instead the curve
slopes down over a certain spread of thicknesses.
This result is due to the fact that the energy loss is not in fact
continuous, but statistical in nature. Indeed, two identical
particles with the same initial energy will not in general
suffer the same number of collisions and hence the same
energy loss.
A measurement with an ensemble of identical particles,
therefore, will show a statistical distribution of ranges
centered about some mean value. This phenomenon is
known as range straggling. In a first approximation,
this distribution is gaussian in form. The mean value of
the distribution is known as the mean range and
corresponds to the midpoint on the descending slope
of the absorption curve. This is the thickness at which
roughly half the particles are absorbed. The actual
range is usually found by taking the tangent to the
curve at the midpoint and extrapolating to the zero-
level. This value is known as the extrapolated or
practical range (see Fig.).
 ED

Typical range number-distance curve. The distribution of ranges

is approximately Gaussian in form
Theoretically, range may be computed by integrating the
stopping power over the full energy spectrum of the
incident particles,
(5)
But due to multiple Coulomb scattering , the trajectory of a
charged particle in a medium is not a straight line. The
particle moves in small straight line segments. However,
the multiple scattering for heavy charged particles is
generally small and equation () is a good approximation to
straight line range. In practice, an emperical formula is
used,
(6)

where Tmin is the minimum energy at which the dE/dx formula

is valid, and Ro(Tmin) is an empirically determined constant
accounting for low energy behavior of energy loss.
Calculated range curves of different heavy particles in aluminium
Some typical range-energy curves for different particles
calculated by a numerical integration of the Bethe-
Bloch formula are found to be linear on log-log scale,
which indicates a power law,
(7)
This can also be seen from the stopping power(BB)
formula, if energy is not very high,
(8)
where T is the kinetic energy. Integrating, we thus find,
(9)
which is consistent with our rough calculation. A more
accurate fit in this energy range, gives
(10)
 Primary and Secondary Ionization
Ions can be formed either by direct interaction with the
incident particle, or through a secondary process, in
which some of the particle energy is first transferred to
an energetic electron or “delta rays”. Regardless of the
detailed mechanism involved, the practical quantity of
interest is the total number of ion pairs created along
the track of the radiation.
The incident charged particle must transfer an amount of
energy equal to the ionization energy of the gas
molecule so that the ionization process can occur. In
most gases used for radiation detectors, the ionization
energy for the last tightly bound electron shells is
between 10 and 25 eV.
However, there are other mechanisms by which the
incident particle may lose energy within the gas that do
not create ions (e.g., excitation). Therefore, average
energy lost by the incident particle per ion pair formed
(defined as the W value) is always substantially greater
than the ionization energy. Theoretically, the W-value
should be a function of species of gas used, type of
radiation and its energy. However, emperical
observations found it remarkably constant for many
gases and different types of radiations. A typical value
is, 25-35eV/ ion-pair.
Example : An incident 1 MeV particle if it is fully stopped
within the gas, will create about 30000 ion pairs.
Assuming that W is constant, the deposited energy will
be proportional to the number of ion pairs formed and
can be determined by measuring the this number.
 Cherenkov Radiation
Cherenkov radiation arises when a charged particle in a
material medium moves faster than the speed of light
in that same medium. In a medium of refractive index
'n', light moves with a phase velocity of 'c/n', which is
less than c, the speed of light in a vacuum. Velocity of
a relativistic particle is given by, v=c.
A particle emitting Cherenkov radiation must therefore
have a velocity v>c/n. In such a case, an
electromagnetic shock wave is created, just as a
faster-than-sound aircraft creates a sonic shock wave.
This is illustrated in the Fig. The coherent wavefront
formed is conical in shape and is emitted at an angle
c, with respect to the trajectory of the particle.
Cherenkov radiation: an electromagnetic shock wave is formed
when the particle travels faster than the speed of light in
the same medium
The formation of conical wave-front is based on Huigen's
principle of wave propagation and it can be shown that,
(11)

In general, a continuous spectrum of frequencies is

radiated and the photons are linearly polarized.The
energy carried off by Cherenkov radiation was first
calculated by Tamm and Frank to be

(12)

where the integration is only over those frequencies for

which pn((o) > 1. This energy loss is already included
in the Bethe-Bloch formula and is greatest at relativistic
velocities. Even at these energies, however, its
contribution is small compared to collision loss.