Compton scattering from the K-shell electrons of Ta and Pb

Abstract

Most previous studies of Compton scattering concentrated on the limit where the electron, from which scattering takes place, is considered to be free as the incident photons have much higher energy than the electron binding energy in the target atoms. However, electrons in the inner shells of heavy elements have high binding energies, especially in the K-shell. Therefore binding energy effects have to be taken into account when the energy of the incident photons and the electron binding energy are comparable. Experimental and theoretical studies investigating the effect of the electron binding energy on Compton scattering generally disagree making further study important.