Electronic cross-sections and Compton attenuation and transfer coefficients of 82Pb208, 29Cu64, 27Co59, 20Ca40 and 13Al27 for applications in radiation shielding and dose

Abstract

Characterizing various materials for radiation shielding and dose calculation is very important. The purpose of the present work is to use Klein-Nishina formula to calculate the electronic cross-sections, atomic cross-section, transfer cross-sections, Compton mass attenuation coefficients and mass-energy transfer cross sections of 82Pb208, 29Cu64, 27Co59, 20Ca40 and 13Al27 when γ-ray photons of various energies interact with these elements. The results reveal that all these cross-sections and coefficients are strongly dependent on the energy of photon and the charge number of the material used. The cross-sections and coefficients decrease with increasing photon energy and increase with increasing charge number to mass number ratio Z/A. It also observed that neutron to proton ratio must support the elements’ stability conditions when calculating these coefficients. The conclusion describes that fundamental quantities and parameters like charge number, energy of interacting photon and Z/A of these elements can be used and controlled to make them very useful for radiation shielding and protection, radiation dose measurements and imaging.