Final Exam Study Guide

NE 401, Spring 2014

The exam will be over chapters 1-13, 16-18, and 20. Note that you need to know the material
covered in chapters 1-4 (chapter 3 is expanded greatly upon by the Error Analysis text by John
Taylor) to fully understand the material, since each chapter often has its foundations in earlier
chapters. Therefore, this exam is comprehensive, but is still weighted toward the topics covered
in chapters 5-8 and 16-18.
1. What are the interaction methods of charged particles, neutrons, and photons with matter?
HCP
o Coulomb forces between + particle and electron in absorber
o Excitation and ionization of electrons
o Max energy transferred = 4Em_0/m appx = E/500
Energy Straggling
o Energy loss is statistical. Particles from charged monoenergetic beam passing
through material at an arbitrary thickness in material will have different energies.
Range Straggling
o Range in given material is also statitstical. Range of each particle from a
monoenergetic beam incident upon a material will vary. Particles that undergo
more interactions will have different ranges from those who undergo less. Also
energy lost per collision is statistical, which affects range.
Electrons
o Lose energy at much lower rate
o No set path (bounce off at random angles and energies)
o Can also lose energy due to bremsstrahlung
Fast electrons
Absorbers of high Z
o Backscattering- electron can enter material and reemerge at lower energy after
scattering
More dominant at low E, high Z
o Positronsonly significant difference is annihilation
Produces 2 0.511 MeV photons
Photons
o Photoelectric Effect
Photon undergoes interaction with absorber atom in which photon
disappears and photoelectron is emitted.
Ionized absorber atom created
Dominates at low gamma energies, enhanced for high Z materials
o Compton Scattering
Elastic scattering of photon with electron in absorber
Dominates gamma interactions for most energy (wide energy range)
Photon transfers portion of energy to electron

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Theta is angle of photon, hv is energy of photon after scattering (MeV)
o Pair Production
If photon energy is greater than 1.022 MeV
Dominant interaction for high energy photons
Photon disappears and is replaced by election positron pair
All energy goes to the pair
Positron annihilates and produces 2 gamma rays
o Coherent scattering
Photon retains initial energy (scatters but does not excite or ionize
electron)
Since there is no energy transfer it is often neglected
Neutrons
o No charge so no coulomb force
o Interacts with nuclei of absorbing material
o Slow Neutrons
Elastic scattering and some nuclear reactions
Very little energy transferred in elastic scattering of slow n
Scatterings thermalize neutrons
Radiative capture is most probable nuclear reaction (n,gamma)
o Fast Neutrons
Nuclear reaction probability decreases rapidly with increasing energy
Scattering becomes more important due to larger energy transger
Neutron can lose all energy in one collision with hydrogen
If energy of neutron is high enough
Inelastic scattering
Recoil nuclei excited, dexcites by emission of photon

2. What are the different types of radiation sources? That is, what are typical radiation
decay particles, energies, and half-lives as a function of Z and position on the table of
isotopes?
Alpha, Beta, Gamma
Alpha
o Energies on order of 4-6 MeV for most
o Lower energy = longer half-life
o <4MeV halflife is very large, >6.5MeV half life is very small(days)
o Alpha emitters are high-Z, Z>52
Beta



3. How are signals generated by charged particles and gamma-rays in gaseous detectors
(ionization chambers, proportional counters, and GM tubes), scintillation detectors, and
semiconductor detectors?



4. What do the generated signals look like coming out of each detector and what is their
temporal behavior?
5. How do we collect and process signals generated in gaseous detectors?
6. What are the methods in which signals from scintillation detectors are converted from
photons to electrical impulses?
7. What are the general characteristics on the physical device operation of semiconductor
detectors? That is, what is the band structure, doping effects, p-n junction, and resistive
(intrinsic) operation?
8. What are the possible ways to set up a pulse chain to analyze the detector signals of the
generic kind (not generically detector specific)? Specifically, see figures 16.1 and 16.2 as
guides to studying the material in more depth, using the slide show as a guide on what to
study.
9. What are the potential issues that surround pulse chain systems and pulse processing?
Topics include pulse pileup, baseline shift and restoration, ADC, MCA, etc.
10. What are the processes that surround the statistics of radiation counting?