Center of Biomedical Engineering

Medical Radiation Physics [Phys-2223]

By Nardos Hailu
 Radiation Review
• Radiation:
- Energy emitted from a body, transmitted through a
medium or space, absorbed by another body.
- Dual nature: wave and particle
- Ionizing or non-ionizing
 
• Ionizing
Has higher enough energy (short λ /high f ) to produce ions
in a matter at the molecular level.
 Particle Interactions
• Particles of ionizing radiation:
Charged particles
- alpha particles (α+2)
- protons (p+)
- beta particles (β−)
- positrons (β+)
- energetic extra-nuclear electrons (e−)

Uncharged particles
- neutrons
 Excitation, Ionization and Radiative Losses
• Energetic charged particles interact with matter and lose
KE via
- Excitation
- Ionization and
- Radiative losses
 
• Excitation and Ionization occur when charged particles
lose energy by interacting with orbital electrons
 
• Are columbic forces exerted on charged particles
 Excitation
• Excitation is the transfer of some of the incident particles’ energy
to electrons in the absorbing material, promoting them to electron
orbits farther from the nucleus
 
• Energy transferred to an electron doesn’t exceed its binding energy
 
• The electron will return to a lower energy level, after excitation,
with the emission of the excitation energy in the form of EM
radiation
 
• De-excitation: re-emitting absorbed excitation energy
 Ionization
• if the transferred energy exceeds the binding energy of the electron,
whereby the electron is ejected from the atom, ionization occurs 

• Results in an ion pair consisting of the ejected electron and the

positively charged atom

• Sometimes, the ejected electrons possess sufficient energy to

produce further ionizations called secondary ionization
 
• These electrons are called delta rays
 Specific Ionization
• The average number of primary and secondary ion pairs produced
per unit length of the charged particle’s path
 
• Expressed in ion pairs (IP)/mm
 
• Reflects all energy losses that occur before an ion pair is produced
 
• Increases with the square of the electrical charge (Q) of the particle

• Decreases with the square of the incident particle velocity (v)

 
•Hence SI ∝ Q2/v4

• A larger charge produces a greater columbic field;

• As the particle loses kinetic energy, it slows down, allowing the columbic field to interact at a given
location for a longer period of time
 Charged Particle Tracks
 Electrons follow tortuous paths in matter as the
result of multiple scattering events caused by
coulombic deflections
 Heavy charged particles have dense and usually
linear ionization track coz of their higher mass
 The path length of a particle is the distance the
particle travels.
 The range of a particle is the depth of penetration
of the particle in matter. Electron track

 The path length of the electron almost always

exceeds its range
 Heavy charged particles have nearly equal path
length and range
 Linear Energy Transfer

 Measure of the average amount of energy deposited locally (near the

incident particle track) in the absorber per unit path length
 Often expressed in units of keV or eV per μm.
𝑄2
 LET α
𝐸𝑘

 Describes the local energy deposition density

 High LET radiations (α-particles, protons, etc.) deposit their energy

over a much shorter range and are much more damaging to cells
 Low LET radiation includes energetic electrons (e.g., β− and β+) and
ionizing EM radiations (gamma and x-rays)
 Scattering
• Deflection of a particle or photon from its original trajectory
 
• Elastic and Inelastic – based on energy conservation
Elastic: total KE of the colliding particles is unchanged
E.g. Billiard ball collision, disregarding frictional loss
• Inelastic: occurs with a loss of kinetic energy
 
• Ionization becomes elastic interaction when binding energy
is negligible compared to incident KE
No energy lost in expense of binding energy
 Radiative Interactions-Bremsstrahlung
• Most electron interactions with the atomic nuclei are elastic

• But electrons can also undergo inelastic interactions

Electron path deflected by the +vely charged nucleus, with a loss of
KE
This energy is instantaneously emitted as EM radiation (i.e., x- rays)

• Energy is conserved

• This radiation emission accompanying electron deceleration is called

bremsstrahlung, German for ‘braking radiation’
 
 Bremsstrahlung
• The deceleration of the high-speed electrons in an x-ray tube
produces the bremsstrahlung x-rays used in diagnostic imaging

• The energy of a bremsstrahlung x-ray photon can be any value up

to and including the entire kinetic energy of the deflected electron
 
• When many electrons undergo bremsstrahlung interactions, the
result is a continuous spectrum of x-ray energies.
 Positron Annihilation
• Positron: +vely charged electron

• Annihilation: convert (matter) into radiant energy, especially by collision of a particle with an
antiparticle.
 
• Positron annihilation occurs following radionuclide decay by positron emission

• Emitted positron (a form of antimatter) interacts with a -vely charged electron, resulting in
the annihilation of the electron-positron pair

• Their rest mass is completely converted into energy in the form of two oppositely directed
annihilation photons
 
• Imaging of the distribution of positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals in patients is
accomplished by the detection of the annihilation photon pairs during positron emission
tomography (PET)
 Neutron Interactions
• Unlike protons and electrons, neutrons, being uncharged particles, cannot cause
excitation and ionization via columbic interactions with orbital electrons
 
• They can, however, interact with atomic nuclei, sometimes liberating charged
particles or nuclear fragments that can directly cause excitation and ionization

• Neutrons often interact with atomic nuclei of light elements elastically

Neutron interacts with the

nucleus ejecting a proton,
transforming an atom into a
new element with a
new atomic no. of Z-1
 Neutron Interactions
• In tissue, energetic neutrons interact primarily with the hydrogen in water, producing recoil protons (hydrogen
nuclei)

• Neutrons may also be captured by atomic nuclei.

• Neutron capture results in a large energy release (typically 2 to 7 MeV) due to the large binding energy of the
neutron
 
• In some cases, one or more neutrons are reemitted; in other cases, the neutron is retained, converting the
atom into a different isotope.

1 1 2
 E.g. 𝐻 + 𝑛 ⟶ 𝐻 + γ, γ-ray energy = 2.22MeV

• Neutron absorption in some very heavy nuclides such as 235𝑈 can cause nuclear fission, producing very
energetic fission fragments, neutrons, and gamma rays