Center of Biomedical Engineering

Medical Radiation Physics [Phys-2223]

By Nardos Hailu
Radiation
Radiation is energy emitted from a body or source and transmitted through
an intervening medium or space and absorbed by another body. For
radiation to exist, it needs three basic things or components:

• Source: a subject from which a radiation is emitted

• Space: a way through which a radiation passes (can be a medium or a
vacuum)
• Absorber: is a subject or body that receives energy emitted from a source
Wave-Particle Duality
• There are two equally correct ways of describing the transmission of
energy—as waves and as discrete particle, like packets or quanta of
energy called photons.
• As a wave, it is represented by velocity, wavelength, and frequency.
• As a particle, it is represented as a photon, which transports energy.

The best example is radiation energy in the form of light. Light energy
emitted from the sun has both a wave nature (electromagnetic
spectrum) and particle nature (photon).
Types of Radiation
• Depending on its energy, radiation can be broadly classified as either ionizing or
non-ionizing. Ionization is the removal of an electron from a neutral atom so that
it become an ion (charged atom).
1.Ionizing radiation: is radiation with very high enough energy (short λ /high
f) to remove electron/s from its orbiting shell/s. It has sufficient energy to produce
ions in matter at the molecular/atomic level. These types of radiations have
potential of creating adverse effects on matter like damage to DNA, protein
denaturation, etc.
2.Non-ionizing radiation: is a radiation with lower amount of energy (longer
λ/ low f) that cannot remove electron/s from an atom. It deposits its energy which
can only cause low level injuries; injuries limited to thermal damages like burns.
Electromagnetic Spectrum

Fig. 1: Ionizing and non-ionizing radiation on EM spectrum

Cont.….
•Based on this, we can classify the electromagnetic spectrum into
ionizing and non-ionizing radiation (Figure above). The bulk lower end
(radio waves to visible light) does not cause adverse effects and hence
categorized under non-ionizing radiation. The upper end (above high
energy UV) is very energetic, can cause great damages and hence is
under ionizing one. The ultra-violet region is a bridge between the two
categories.
Non-ionizing Radiation
Types and clinical effects- lowest to highest frequency

1. ELF (extremely low frequency): are radiations from industrial power plants or
power lines and believed to have inconclusive evidence of leukemia link
2. Radio and Microwave Frequencies: are radiations from sources like radar and
communication equipment, industrial and commercial ovens, and cell phones.
These do not cause damages too soon but have very adverse effects if exposed for
prolonged time.
3. Lasers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) are beams of
coherent light with specific frequency and small bandwidth. They can be in the
infrared, visible or UV spectrum and the eye is the most sensitive to injury from
LASERs.
Cont.….
4. Infrared: It can be emitted during welding, glassmaking, heating and
dehydrating processes. It can penetrate superficial layers of the skin, causes
thermal injury, and also has a potential to cause damage to the cornea, iris, and
lens of the eye.
5. Visible Spectrum: is a visible form of light in EM spectrum from 400 to 750nm
wavelengths. Its energy range can remembered with a simple acronym of its colors
known as ‘ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet)’ in
increasing order of energy. It has a possibility of causing retinal injury from 400-
500 nm blue frequencies.
6.Ultraviolet: is radiation with energy a bit higher than blue light, with wavelength
range of 200nm to 400 nm. It acts as a bridge between non-ionizing and ionizing
radiations and has a potential of causing skin cancer.
 Ionizing Radiation
Types and clinical effects
Ionizing radiation is emitted from radioactive atomic structures in the
form of high energy electromagnetic waves (gamma and x-rays) or as
actual particles (alpha, beta, neutrons, etc.).

These type of radiation are the most useful ones, though they have very
devastating effects if mishandled and exposed without appropriate
protection. Hence, our main focus will be on these types of radiation and
we will discuss about them in detail in upcoming classes.
Sources of Ionizing Radiation
•Everything in this universe, including humans, trees, animals, stars, etc.
give out radiation of a specific wavelength. Some of these are very
energetic and some have negligible amount of energy. Generally,
sources to ionizing radiation can be classified into two broad categories:
Natural and Man-made.
Cont.….
1. The Naturally existing sources include:

• Cosmic radiations: are radiations that bombard the earth’s atmosphere by

high-energetic particles from our galaxy. In the upper atmospheric layers,
these particles react with air molecules and result in a great number of
secondary particles (secondary cosmic radiation). Some of these secondary
particles decay again, absorbed in the atmosphere, or possibly penetrate into
the earth’s surface.

• Terrestrial: are majorly from Radon atoms which exist in bulk in earth’s
surface.
Cont.…..
• Internal:-are radiations emitted from radioactive isotopes like
potassium-40, carbon-14, lead-210, and others that naturally exist
inside the body of all humans.
Cont.…..
2. Man-made sources of radiation exposure include radiation from
consumer products such as tobacco (thorium), building and road
construction materials, combustible fuels (gas, coal, etc.), ophthalmic
glasses, televisions and radios, luminous watches and dials (tritium),
airport X-ray systems, smoke detectors (americium), electron tubes,
fluorescent lamp starters, medical X-rays, lantern mantles, nuclear
medicine, nuclear power plants, etc.
Cont.…..
• By far, the most significant sources of man-made radiations are from
medical procedures. These include diagnostic X-rays, nuclear
medicine and radiation therapy. Some of the major isotopes used in
these procedures would be Iodine-131, Technetium-99m, Cobalt-60,
Iridium-192, Cesium-137, etc.
• Other major source of man-made radiation is from nuclear power
plants which is emitted during nuclear fuel cycle: processing of
uranium and its daughter products from mining and milling to actual
power production.
Part Two
Structure of the Atom
• The atom is the smallest division of an element in which the chemical identity of
the element is maintained. It is composed of an extremely dense positively
charged nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, and an extra-nuclear cloud of
light negatively charged electrons.
• In its non-ionized state, an atom is electrically neutral because the number of
protons equals the number of electrons.
• The radius of an atom is approximately an angstrom whereas that of the nucleus
is only about 10-14 m.
Electron Orbits and Electron Binding
Energy
• In the Bohr model of the atom, electrons orbit around a dense, positively charged
nucleus at fixed distances.
• In this model of the atom, each electron occupies a discrete energy state in a
given electron shell. These electron shells are assigned the letters K L, M, N…
inside out, with decreasing energy.
• The shells are also assigned the quantum numbers 1, 2, 3, 4… with the quantum
number 1 designating the K shell (Fig.1 below). Each shell can contain a maximum
number of electrons given by (2n2), where n is the quantum number of the shell.
Thus, the K shell (n = 1) can only hold 2 electrons, the L shell (n= 2) can hold 2(2)2
or 8 electrons, and soon.
Cont….
• The outer electron shell of an atom, the valence shell, determines the chemical properties
of the element.

• The energy required to completely remove an orbital electron from the atom is called
orbital binding energy. Thus, for radiation to be ionizing, the energy transferred to the
electron must equal or exceed its binding energy.

• Due to the closer proximity of the electrons to the positively charged nucleus, the binding
energy of the K-shell is greater than that of outer shells. For a particular electron shell,
binding energy also increases with the number of protons in the nucleus (i.e., atomic
number). To transfer an electron from one shell to another, we need energy which at least
equals the energy difference between the two shells, called transition energy.
Cont…
• The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, known collectively as nucleons. The
number of protons in the nucleus is the atomic number (Z), and the total number of
protons and neutrons within the nucleus is the mass number (A).

• It is important not to confuse the mass number with the atomic mass, which is the actual
mass of the atom. For example, the mass number of oxygen-16 is 16 (8 protons and 8
neutrons), whereas its atomic mass is 15.9994 amu.
Fig.1. Electron shell designations and orbital filling rules