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Lecture Outline
Atomic Structure
Orbits of Electrons
Hydrogen = 13.5 eV
Air = 29 eV
Lead = 1 KeV
Tungsten = 4 KeV
Characteristic Radiation
What happen to ionised or excited atom?
Return to ground state by rearrangement of electrons
Causes atom to give off energy
Energy given off as characteristic radiation
Infrared
Light
X-ray
Example
Consider an electron accelerated through an X-ray tube where
the anode is made of tungsten. If the anode is held at 120 KV,
what is the maximum number of tungsten atoms can be
ionised?
Ionising Radiation
EM radiation of higher frequency than the nearultraviolet region of spectrum carries sufficient energy
per photon to remove bound electrons from atomic
shells, thus producing ionised atoms and molecules.
Radiation in this portion of spectrum (e.g. Ultraviolet
radiation, x-ray, gamma rays) is called ionising
radiation.
Radiation energies in medical imaging are 30 KeV 511
KeV, which can ionised 10 40, 000 atoms.
c v
X-rays
Used in X-ray/CT
Created in the electron cloud of atoms due to ionising radiation.
Visible light
Used in radiography to improve the efficiency of photographic
film to detect X-rays
Radiofrequency EM
Used to stimulate nuclei in MRI to generate EM radiation
Particulate Radiation
Radiation by any particle (proton, neutron or
electron) if it possesses enough kinetic energy to
ionise an atom
Radiative transfer
Produces X-ray
Characteristic radiation
Collide with K-shell
Bremsstrahlung radiation
Collide with nucleus
More common compared
to characteristic radiation
Collisional Transfer
The energetic electron collides with an atom in the
target
Typically, a small fraction of the kinetic energy of the
electron is transferred to another electron in the atom
As the affected atom returns to its original state, infrared
radiation (heat) is generated
Ionization caused by
Coulombic repulsion
Secondary
electron delta
rays
Incident ionizing +
or - particle
Positive Ion
Characteristic X-ray
The incident electron collides with a K-shell electron,
exciting or ionising atom, leaving a hole in that shell
As the atom returns to its ground state, the k-shell hole is
filled by a higher shell electron
The loss energy creates an EM photon, known as
Characteristic X-ray
The energy of the x-ray photon = difference between
binding energy of the two shells (element dependent)
Bremsstrahlung Ray
As the incident electron approaches the nucleus of an atom, the
positive charge of the nucleus causes the incident electron to bend
around the nucleus and decelerates
The loss energy leads to the Bremsstrahlung x-ray (energy vary over a
continuous range, depending on the speed loss)
Bremsstrahlung Ray
The probability of bremsstrahlung emission per atom is
proportional to Z2 of the absorber
The ratio of electron energy loss by bremmsstrahlung
production to that lost by excitation and ionisation can
be calculated
Bremsstrahlung _ Radiation Ek Z
Neutron Interactions
Neutrons : no external charge no excitation or
ionization
Can interact with nuclei to eject charged particles (e.g.,
p+ or 2+)
In tissue (or water) neutrons eject p+ (recoil protons)
Scattering: deflection of particle or photon from
original trajectory
Elastic: scattering event in which the total KE is
uncharged.
Inelastic: scattering event with loss of KE
EM Radiation Interactions
Four main interactions
Classical Scattering
Compton Scattering
The incoming photon changes its direction
Photoelectric effect
The incoming photon is completely absorbed and
ejecting K-shell or L-shell electrons, producing
characteristic x-ray
Pair Production
Classical Scattering
Is the elastic scattering of light or
other EM radiation by particles
much smaller than the wavelength
of light
The incident photon interacts with
and excites the total atom. (1
interact with an atom and the
scattered photon 2 is being
emitted with app. Same
wavelength and energy).
Occurs mainly with very low
energy diagnostic x-ray
(mammography 15 to 30 keV)
Electrons are ejected, thus
ionisation does not occur.
Compton Scattering
Is the predominant interaction
of x- or gamma rays in the
diagnostic range (approx. 30
keV 50 MeV) with soft tissue.
An incoming photon ejects an
outer valence shell electron
yielding a Compton electron
The incident loses its energy
and changes its direction
The scattered photon is called
Compton Photon
Compton Scattering
The incident energy, E0 is equal to sum of the
energy of scattered photon Esc and the kinetic
energy of ejected electron, Ee-. (E0 =Esc + Ee- )
The energy of scattered photon depends on
the scatter angle, .
Compton Scattering
Photoelectric Effect
Photoelectric Effect
Photoelectric Effect
For photoelectric absorption to occur, the incident
photon energy must be greater or equal to the binding
energy of electron that is ejected.
Characteristic x-ray or Auger electron:
Photons whose energies exceed the K-shell binding energy,
the photoelectric interaction with K-shell is most likely to
occur. Thus atom is ionised with inner shell electron
vacancy.
The vacancy will be filled by an electron from a shell with a
lower binding energy, thus creates another vacancy which
will be filled by an electron from an even lower binding
energy.
Thus, an electron cascade from outer to inner shells occur,
the difference in binding energy is released as either
characteristic x-ray of Auger electrons.
Photoelectric Effect
The benefit of photoelectric absorption in x-ray
transmission imaging is that there are additional
nonprimary photon to degrade the image
At photon energies below 50 KeV, photoelectric plays an
important role in imaging soft tissue.
The photoelectric absorption can be used to amplify
differences in attenuation between tissues with slightly
different atomic numbers, thereby improving image
contrast
This differential absorption is exploited to improve image
contrast in selection of x-ray tube target material and filters
in mammography
Q: Why image contrast decrease when higher x-ray
energies are used in imaging process?
Pair Production
Relative likelihood
Compton scattering is equally likely in various materials
and invariant of incident energy
Photoelectric effect is more likely in high Z material
and less likely with high incident energy
Overall, Compton scattering is more dominant with
higher incident energy in the same material
But the percent of energy deposited due to
photoelectric event is larger because all incident
energy is absorbed.