INTERACTION OF

RADIATION WITH
MATTER
A presentation by:
SUKANYA DESHMUKH
(0812EI071054)
Introduction
 The detection, characterization and effects of
radiation are solely dependent on their
interaction with matter.
 Highly energetic charged particles interact
with matter by electrical forces and lose
kinetic energy via:
 Excitation
 Ionization
 Radioactive losses
 Radiation is an electromagnetic wave that
has no charge and no mass.
 X-rays and gamma-rays can be
characterized by frequency, wavelength,
and energy.
 When radiation encounters a material, some
of the energy will be absorbed through
interactions with subatomic particles.
 More radiation will be absorbed by materials
with high atomic numbers (generally more
dense materials) because there are more
subatomic particles to interact with the
radiation.
Specific Ionization
 Number of primary and secondary ion
pairs produced per unit length of charged
particle’s path is called specific ionization

(Expressed in ion pairs (IP)/mm)

 Increases with electrical charge of particle.
 Decreases with incident particle velocity.
Charged Particle Tracks
 Larger mass of heavy charged particle results
in dense and usually linear ionization track.
 Ionization track is sparse and non uniform.
 Path length is the actual distance particle
travels.
 Range is actual depth of penetration in
matter.
Process of Ionization
• When X and gamma ray photons penetrate
matter, they interact with the atomic particles in
the material and are said to be absorbed by the
material. This absorption results due to
ionization.
• There are four principle mechanisms of
ionization – Photoelectric effect, Compton
effect, Rayleigh scattering and Pair
production.
Rayleigh Scattering
 When a photon
interacts with atom, it
may impart energy to it
and cause it to deflect.
 Occurs mainly with very
low energy diagnostic
x-rays, as used in
mammography (15 to
30 keV)
Compton Scattering
 Predominant interaction in
the diagnostic energy range
with soft tissue
 Most likely to occur between
photons and outer
(“valence”) shell electrons
 Electron ejected from the
atom; photon scattered with
reduction in energy
 Binding energy
comparatively small and
can be ignored
Photoelectric absorption
 All of the incident photon
energy is transferred to
an electron, which is
ejected from the atom
 Kinetic energy of ejected
photoelectron (Ec) is
equal to incident photon
energy (E0) minus the
binding energy of the
orbital electron (Eb)
Ec = Eo - Eb
Pair production
 Can only occur when the
energy of the photon
exceeds 1.02 MeV
 Photon interacts with
electric field of the nucleus;
energy transformed into an
electron-positron pair
 Of no consequence in
diagnostic x-ray imaging
because of high energies
required
Interactions:
Some important terms:
 Half value layer (HVL) defined as thickness of
material required to reduce intensity of an x- or
gamma-ray beam to one-half of its initial value.
 Mean Free Path is known as the Range of a single
photon in matter, Mean free path (MFP) of photon
beam is:
1 1
MFP    1.44 HVL
 0.693 / HVL
 Fluence: Number of photons passing through unit
cross-sectional area. (expressed in units of cm-2

 Flux: Fluence rate (e.g., rate at which photons or

particles pass through a unit area per unit time) is
called flux (units of cm-2 sec-1)

 Energy Fluence: Amount of energy passing

through a unit cross-sectional area is called the
energy fluence.
References:
 www.wikipedia.com
 http://www.ndt-
ed.org/EducationResources/HighSchool/Radi
ography/interactionradmat.htm
 http://www.tesec-int.org/TechHaz-site
%2008/Radiation-interaction.pdf
Thank you…