Interaction Of X Rays And Gamma Rays With Matter And Their Effects On Irradiated Materials

Ionizing radiation also can take the form of electromagnetic rays. When emitted by excited atoms, they are given the name X rays and have quantum energies typically measured from 1 to 100 keV. When emitted by excited nuclei, they are called gamma rays, and characteristic energies can be as high as several MeV. In both cases, the radiation takes the form of photons of electromagnetic energy. Since the photon is uncharged, it does not interact through the Coulomb force and therefore can pass through large distances in matter without significant interaction. The average distance traveled between interactions is called the mean free path and in solid materials ranges from a few millimetres for low-energy X rays through tens of centimetres for high-energy gamma rays. When an interaction does occur, however, it is catastrophic in the sense that a single interaction can profoundly affect the energy and direction of the photon or can make it disappear entirely. In such an interaction, all or part of the photon en