BAT-Radioactivity

INTRODUCTION

UNITS OF RADIOACTIVITY

RADIOACTIVE DECAY
SYNOPSIS
DETECTION AND ITS MEASUREMENT

REFERENCES
 The phenomenon of spontaneous emission of highly penetrating
radiations such as α , β and γ rays by an element is called
radioactivity and the substances which emit these radiations are
called radioactive elements

These radioactive elements can be heavy elements , isotopes of

lighter and heavy elements and these isotopes are called
radioisotopes

INTRODUCTION Radioactivity is the process by which a nucleus of an unstable

 atom loses energy by emitting particles of ionizing radiation

According to quantum theory, it is impossible to predict when a

particular atom will decay, regardless of how long the atom has
existed
 The International System of Units unit of radioactive activity is
the becquerel , named in honour of the scientist Henri Becquerel

UNITS OF An older unit of radioactivity is the curie, Ci, which was originally
defined as "the quantity or mass of radium emanation in
RADIOACTIVIT equilibrium with one gram of radium "

Y
For radiological protection purposes, although the United States
Nuclear Regulatory Commission permits the use of the unit curie
alongside SI units, the European Union European units of
measurement directives required that its use for "public health...
purposes" be phased out by 31 December
 Alpha decay occurs when the nucleus ejects an alpha particle

Beta decay occurs in two ways

In gamma decay a radioactive nucleus first decay by the emission of an alpha or beta particle

RADIOACTIV In neutron emission, extremely neutron-rich nuclei, formed due to other types of decay or after many
successive neutron captures, occasionally lose energy by way of neutron emission, resulting in a

E DECAY change from one isotope to another of the same element

In electron capture, the nucleus may capture an orbiting electron, causing a proton to convert into a
neutron in a process called electron capture

In cluster decay and nuclear fission, a nucleus heavier than an alpha particle is emitted
 Americium-241, an alpha emitter, is used in smoke
detectors

Radium-223 is also an alpha emitter

ALPHA DECAY Alpha decay can provide a safe power source for
radioisotope thermoelectric generators used for
space probes and were used for artificial heart
pacemakers

Static eliminators typically use polonium-210, an

alpha emitter, to ionize the air, allowing the 'static
cling' to dissipate more rapidly
 In beta decay, a radioactive nucleus
emits either electron or positron

The positron is an anti-particle of an

electron whose mass is same as that of
BETA electron and charge is opposite to that
of electron
DECAY

Both are referred to as beta particles

 In β- decay, the atomic number of the nucleus increases
by one but mass number remains the same

In other words, for each β+ decay, a proton in the

nucleus of X is converted into a neutron by emitting a

β – DECAY positron and a neutrino

It is important to note that the electron or positron

which comes out from nuclei during beta decay is
never present inside the nucleus rather they are
produced during the conversion of neutron into proton
or proton into neutron inside the nucleus
 It has zero charge

It has an antiparticle called anti-neutrino

NEUTRINO Recent experiments showed that the neutrino

has very tiny mass

It interacts very weakly with the matter

In α and β decay, the daughter nucleus is in the
excited state most of the time

So, this excited state nucleus immediately returns

to the ground state or lower energy state by
GAMMA
emitting highly energetic photons called γ rays
DECAY

But when the excited state nucleus returns to its

ground state, it emits a highly energetic photon of
energy in the order of MeV
MEASUREMENT- LAW OF
RADIOACTIVE DECAY
A radioactive sample which
contains a vast number of the
radioactive nuclei and not all the
radioactive nucleus in a sample
decay at the same time
It implies that we cannot predict
It decays over a period of time
which nucleus is going to decay
and this decay is basically a
or rather we can determine like
random process
probabilistic basis

We can also define another useful

quantity called activity or decay
rate which is the number of nuclei The equation is also equivalent to
decayed per second and it is radioactive law of decay
denoted as R = | dN/dt | where R0
= λN
 It is difficult to calculate the time
taken by a given a sample of N atoms
to decay

We can define the half-life as the time

required for the number of atoms
initially present to reduce to one half
HALF-LIFE of the initial amount

Some radioactive nuclei are known to

have half-life as long as 1014 years
and some nucleus have very shorter
life time
 When the radioactive nucleus undergo the
decay, the nucleus which disintegrates first has
zero life time and the nucleus which decay last
has an infinite lifetime

The actual life time for each nucleus varies from

MEAN LIFE zero to infinity

The mean life time of the nucleus is the ratio of

sum or integration of life times of all nuclei to
the total number nuclei present initially
 Geiger Counter, with Geiger-Mueller
Tube or Probe—A GM tube is a gas-
filled device that, when a high voltage is
applied, creates an electrical pulse when
radiation interacts with the wall or gas in
the tube
DETECTION OF
RADIOACTIVITY
MicroR Meter, with Sodium Iodide
Detector—A solid crystal of sodium
iodide creates a pulse of light when
radiation interacts with it
 Portable Multichannel Analyzer—A sodium
iodide crystal and PMT described above,
coupled with a small multichannel analyzer
electronics package, are becoming much more
affordable and common

DETECTION OF Ionization Chamber—This is an air-filled

chamber with an electrically conductive inner
wall and central anode and a relatively low
RADIOACTIVITY applied voltage

Radon Detectors—A number of different

techniques are used for radon measurements in
home or occupational settings
 Brian R Martin, Particle Physics

https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/faqs/radiationdetection.html
REFERENCES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_decay