Physics of Nuclear Radiations: Concepts, Techniques and Applications

361 Pages·2013·26.083 MB·\361

by  Chary Rangacharyulu (Author)

P H Y S I C S O F
Nuclear Radiations
Concepts, Techniques and Applications
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
P H Y S I C S O F
Nuclear Radiations
Concepts, Techniques and Applications
Chary Rangacharyulu
Taylor & Francis
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Contents
Preface xi
1 PhysicsPreliminaries 1
1.1 ConservationLaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 BasicsofRelativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 EnergeticsofPhotons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 EnergeticsofMatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 MatterWaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.7 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Radioactivity 21
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.1 ExponentialDecayLaw . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.2 UnitsofRadioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2 NaturalRadioactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 RadioactiveSecularEquilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.4 GrowthandDecayofRadioactivity . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5 AgeDetermination—AnApplication . . . . . . . . 47
2.5.1 RadiocarbonDating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.5.2 AcceleratorMassSpectrometry . . . . . . . 51
2.6 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2.7 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3 NuclearEnergetics 61
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2 Q-ValueofNuclearProcesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2.1 Q-ValuesfromAtomicMasses . . . . . . . . 63
3.3 BetaDecay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3.1 Q-ValuesfromNuclearWalletCards . . . . . 71
v
vi Contents
3.4 Q-ValuesforPopulatingExcitedLevels . . . . . . . 72
3.4.1 NuclearExcitationEnergyDeterminations . . 73
3.5 Q-ValuesofArtificialTransmutation . . . . . . . . . 77
3.5.1 PositiveQ-Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.5.2 NegativeQ-Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.6 SeparationEnergies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.6.1 NeutronSeparationEnergy . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.6.2 ProtonSeparationEnergy . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.6.3 AlphaSeparationEnergy . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.7 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.8 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4 InteractionofHeavyChargedParticleswithMatter 91
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.2 BetheStoppingPowerFormula . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.2.1 MinimumStoppingPower . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2.2 RelativeStoppingPower . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.3 RangeofChargedParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.4 BraggPeak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.5 RangeofαParticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.6 RangeofParticlesinMixturesandCompounds . . . 111
4.7 EnergyLossofElectronsbyIonization . . . . . . . 112
4.8 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5 InteractionsofPhotonsandElectronsinMatter 117
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.2 RadiationLength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.3 Photon Energy and Material Dependence of Attenua-
tionCoefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.4 PhotonEnergyLossMechanisms . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.4.1 PhotonInteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.4.2 PhotonInteractionCrossSections . . . . . . 128
5.5 Bragg’sAdditiveRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.6 ElectronInteractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.7 Bremsstrahlung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.8 RadiationLength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.9 CherenkovRadiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Contents vii
5.10 TransitionRadiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.10.1 SynchrotronRadiation . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.11 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.12 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6 InteractionsofNeutronswithMatter 151
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.1.1 NomenclatureofNeutrons . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.1.2 LowEnergyNeutrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.2 NuclearFission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.2.1 ChainReactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.2.2 NeutronsinaNuclearReactor . . . . . . . . 165
6.3 MacroscopicCrossSection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.4 NeutronMultiplicationinBulkMatter . . . . . . . . 172
6.4.1 TheFourFactorFormula . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.5 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6.6 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7 BasicsofRadiationDosimetry 179
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2 BiologicalConsiderations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.3 WorkingLevelMonth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
7.4 SpecificGammaRayConstant . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
7.5 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8 RadiationSources 203
8.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.2 ProductionofElectromagneticRadiation . . . . . . 207
8.3 IonBeamAccelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
8.4 ElectrostaticAccelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
8.5 AlternatingCurrentAccelerators . . . . . . . . . . . 216
8.6 LinearAccelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
8.7 Cyclotron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
8.7.1 K-ValueofaCyclotron . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
8.8 Microtron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
8.9 Synchrotron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
8.10 ColliderMachines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
8.11 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
viii Contents
8.12 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
9 NuclearRadiationDetectors 239
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
9.2 CloudChambersandBubbleChambers . . . . . . . 242
9.3 GasDetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
9.3.1 IonizationChambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
9.3.2 ProportionalCounter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
9.3.3 Geiger–Mu¨llerCounter . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
9.4 Multi-WireChambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
9.4.1 Multi-WireProportionalChambers(MWPC) 247
9.4.2 Multi-WireDriftChambers(MWDC) . . . . 248
9.5 SemiconductorSolidStateDetectors . . . . . . . . . 250
9.6 ScintillationCounters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
9.6.1 ScintillationMaterials . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
9.7 CherenkovDetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
9.8 Photosensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
10 MeasurementTechniques 261
10.1 IntensityMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
10.2 EnergySpectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
10.3 CoincidenceMeasurementsforEnergySpectroscopy 267
10.3.1 TimeCorrelationMeasurements . . . . . . . 268
10.3.2 EnergyCorrelationMeasurementsforCharged
ParticleIdentification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
10.4 TimingSpectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
10.4.1 TimeofFlightMeasurements . . . . . . . . . 273
10.5 ParticleIdentificationbyTimeofFlight . . . . . . . 277
10.5.1 Particle Discrimination by Cherenkov Radia-
tionEmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
11 NuclearTechniques—AFewApplications 283
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
11.1.1 SomeApplicationsinAgriculture . . . . . . 283
11.2 ApplicationsinMedicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
11.2.1 RadiologicalImaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
11.3 RadiationTherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
11.3.1 GammaBeams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Contents ix
11.3.2 TreatmentwithRadioactiveIsotopes . . . . . 295
11.3.3 GammaKnife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
11.3.4 ElectronBeamFacilities . . . . . . . . . . . 298
11.3.5 RadiationTherapywithParticleBeams . . . 298
11.4 TraceElementAnalyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
11.4.1 ResonanceFluorescence . . . . . . . . . . . 300
11.4.2 RadioactivityMeasurements . . . . . . . . . 302
11.4.3 Non-Destructive Testing of the Strength of
Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
11.4.4 GammaRayAttenuationMethod . . . . . . . 303
11.4.5 NeutronRadiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
A RadioactiveDecays 309
A.1 RadioactiveDecayasaRandomWalkProblem . . . 309
A.2 SequentialDecaysandRadioactiveEquilibria . . . . 310
A.2.1 Case1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
A.2.2 Case2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
B Energetics 315
B.1 EnergeticsofNuclear/ParticleReactions . . . . . . . 315
C CrossSections 319
C.1 Luminosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
D PhysicsofSemiconductorDetectors 331
E Websites 337
F Glossary 341
Index 345