Group-1

Phys-713
 Sources of radiation
 Natural source
 Man-made source.

 
1.5.A Natural sources
Three types of natural sources of radiation:
 Cosmic radiation
 Terrestrial radiation
 Internal radiation

 
Cosmic radiation sources
•Outer space is filled with radiation that comes from a
variety of sources such as burning (e.g., our Sun) and
exploding (e.g., supernovae) stars.
•These bodies produce immense amounts of radiation, some
of which reaches Earth.
Terrestrial radiation sources
Terrestrial radiation is the energy released by the Earth
itself as opposed to solar radiation that it receives from the
Sun.
Apart from the energy generated by the decay of
radioactive minerals in rock, the energy that drives terrestrial
radiation ultimately comes from the Sun, and it is a major
factor in the study of global warming.
 The Earth itself is a source of terrestrial radiation.
 Radioactive materials including uranium, thorium and
radium exist naturally in soil and rock.
 The two isotopes of radon, 222
Rn and 220
Rn, and their
daughter products are the most commonly found hazardous
radioactive elements in our surroundings.
 The main cause of concern with respect to these α-emitting
isotopes is their inhalation or digestion, in which case the
short-range α-particles continuously cause damage to
internal organs that can lead to cell mutations and
ultimately cancer.
Internal radiation sources
 Our bodies contain some traces of radioactive
elements that continuously expose our tissues to
low levels of radiation.
 This internal radiation primarily comes from
potassium-40 and carbon-14 isotopes.
 The absorbed dose and damage to tissue due to this
radiation are minimal.
 
1.5.B Man-made sources
These sources are made for specific purposes and generally
give off one type of radiation. Common examples of such
sources are
 Medical X ray machines
 Airport X ray scanners
 Isotopes used in nuclear medicine
 Particle accelerators and
 Lasers
1.6 General properties and sources of
particles and waves
 The interaction of particles with atoms depend on the
properties of both incident particles and target atoms.
 These properties include mass , electrical charge, and
energy.
 To understand the interaction mechanisms of different
particles it is necessary to first explore their properties.
1.6. A Photons
A photon is the smallest discrete amount or quantum of electromagnetic
radiation.

Figure 1.6.1 Electromagnetic spectrum

Basic properties of photons:
 They have zero mass and rest energy.
 They are elementary particles despite lacking rest mas.
 They have no electric charge.
 They are stable.
 They carry energy and momentum which are dependent on
the frequency.
Photons play very important roles not only in physics but also
in engineering, medical diagnostics and treatment.
For example, laser light is used to correct vision, a process
called laser surgery of the eye.
In medical diagnostics, X-rays are used to make images of
internal organs.
X-ray machine
Since X-rays are high-energy photons and can cause
considerable damage to tissues, they are produced and
employed in controlled laboratory environments.
Production of X-rays is a relatively simple process in which a
high Z target is bombarded with high-velocity electrons in
(Figure 1.6.2).

Bremsstrahlung
 
There are two types of X-rays
Characteristic X-rays
Figure 1.6.2 Sketch of a typical X-ray tube
Bremsstrahlung
Bremsstrahlung refers to the radiation emitted by charged
particles when they decelerate in a medium.
The high energy electrons decelerate quickly in the target
material and hence emit Bremsstrahlung. 
characteristic X-ray photons
To regain atomic stability, the electrons from higher
energy levels quickly fill these gaps.
Since the energy of these electrons is higher than the
energy needed to stay in the new orbits, the excess energy is
emitted in the form of X-ray photons.
These so called characteristic X-ray photons have
energies equal to the difference between the two energy
levels
Figure .Physical process of generation of characteristic X-rays and
Bremsstrahlung.
Figure 1.6.4 A typical X-ray tube spectrum showing Bremsstrahlung
continuum and peaks corresponding to characteristic X-rays.
What is Synchrotron radiation?
When electrons (or any charged particles) are accelerated to keep
them in a circular path they will radiate electromagnetic radiation in
a narrow beam in the direction that they were travelling.
 This radiation is called synchrotron radiation.
Bremsstrahlung is a product of tangential acceleration, while
synchrotron radiation is produced by centripetal acceleration of
charged particles.
The X-rays produced as synchrotron radiation are
extremely intense, highly collimated, and polarized.
Conventional X-rays have very low intensities, are very
difficult to collimate, and are completely unpolarized.
The production of synchrotron radiation is far more
expensive than conventional X-rays and therefore dedicated
synchrotron facilities have been developed around the world
where beam time is made available to researchers.
Laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
Radiation) is generated by exploiting a quantum mechanical
phenomenon called stimulated emission of photons.
Stimulated emission is an optical amplification process in
which the photon population is increased by allowing the
incident photons to interact with atoms or molecules in
excited states.
If more atoms or molecules are in an excited state than in
a ground state, the system is said to have reached population
inversion.
Laser light is emitted for as long as this population inversion
is maintained.
What is gas Laser?
A gas laser is a laser in which an electric current is discharged through

a gas to produce coherent light

Figure 1.6.6 Principle of lasing action in a gas

The principle of operation of a typical gas laser
• To make stimulated emission possible, energy must be
provided from some external source.
• Pump can be a simple light source.
• A semi-transparent mirror at the exiting end and an
opaque mirror at the other end of the laser cavity reflect
enough light to maintain the population inversion.
• A focusing lens at the other end is used for further
collimation of the laser light.
 •Lasers can be produced either as continuous waves or in the
form of short duration pulses by a variety of materials in
different states.

Liquid lasers
Using liquid as a lasing material is best demonstrated by the so called
dye lasers.
These lasers use a combination of liquid organic dyes to produce laser
light with wavelengths that can be tuned over a specific region of the
electromagnetic spectrum.

A solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid,

rather than a liquid such as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers.
Radioactive sources of photons

Figure 1.6.7 Decay scheme of cobalt-60.

This figure is represented by the reaction below.

Table 1.6.1 Common γ emitters and their half-lives
1.6.B Electrons

 Electrons were first discovered by J.J . Thompson in 1897

in Britain.
 The electron is one of the fundamental particles of nature.
 It carriers negative electrical charge and has a very small
mass.
 Basic properties of electrons

Rest mass=9.11x1031kg=0.511MeV/c2
Electrical charge=-1.602x1019C
Internal structure: Believed to have no internal
structure
Electrons are also extensively used in medical diagnostics,
therapy, material research, and in a number of other
fields.
 Sources of electrons
Production of electron beams is a relatively simple process,
and a number of devices have been developed for the
purpose. We will discuss here some of the commonly used
sources of electrons.

 Electron gun
There are used to produce intense beams of high energy electrons. Two
types of electron guns are in common use: the thermionic electron gun
and the field emission electron gun. A third type, the photon emission
electron gun , is now gaining popularity, especially in high energy
physics research.
 In a thermionic electron gun, the electrons in a metal are
provided energy in the form of heat.
 Tungsten is used in the form of a thin wire as a source due
to its low work function (4.5eV).
 The intensity of the electron beam is proportional to the
number of electrons emitted by the filament, which in turn
depends on the temperature of the filament.
 Since the temperature is proportional to the current passing
through the filament, the current can be used to control the
intensity of the electron beam.
 In practice, as the filament current is raised, the electron
beam intensity raises until a saturation state is reached, after
which the intensity remains constant even at higher
currents(Figure ).
Figure 1.6.8 Dependence of electron beam current on filament
current
In a field emission electron gun, the electrons are
extracted from a metal using a very high electric field, on
the order of 109V/m. This does not require the source of
electrons to be heated.
In photon emission electron gun, to liberate electrons
from the surface of a metal by illuminating it with photons,
a process called photoelectric emission. In order to obtain
intense electron beams, this process requires utilization of
intense light sources, such as lasers. The photo-emission
electron tubes that utilize this principle are capable of
producing highly intense electron beam pulses.
Radioactive sources of electrons
 

Cobalt-60 emits β-particles together with γ-rays. The emission

of a β-particle by a radionuclide was described earlier through
the reaction
 
ν
Radioactive sources of electrons

The emission of a β-particle by a radionuclide was described

earlier through the reaction
Table 1.6.2 Common electron emitters and their half-lives
Thanks
- A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical
amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic
radiation.

-Stimulated emission is the process by which an incoming photon of a

specific frequency can interact with an excited atomic electron (or
other excited molecular state), causing it to drop to a lower energy
level.
- The liberated energy transfers to the electromagnetic field, creating
a new photon with a phase, frequency, polarization, and direction of
travel that are all identical to the photons of the incident wave.