Lecture 6a Interaction of Radiation With Matter

Resident Physics Lectures
Interaction of Radiation with Matter

Prof. J.K Tonui. PhD
School of Medicine,
Department of Radiology & Imaging
Learning Objectives
 At the end of this lecture, the student is expected to:
 Understand why should radiation interact with body tissues.
 State the five interaction methods between radiation and body
tissues and their application in radiography.

 Describe Compton scattering in details and state its advantages
and disadvantages in radiography.
2 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

Introduction
 X- and  radiation are used for medical imaging in hospitals
because of two reasons:

 Energetic enough to penetrate thro’ human body and reach
image receptors, and

 Interact with the tissues of the human body.
 Without these two conditions taking place, these radiation
would not be useful for medical imaging.

Interaction of radiation with matter
 Interaction of radiation with matter (body tissues and image
receptors in medical imaging) is important for two reasons:

1. To produce images of internal body tissues/organs, otherwise
they would be useless for medical diagnosis, and
2. To enable transmitted radiation to be detected by either image
receptors (e.g. x-ray films, gamma cameras, etc ) or radiation
detectors (e.g. survey meters, film badges, autotimers, etc).

 X - and  radiation
 Must interact with body tissue to pick up information necessary to
produce useful diagnosis images on IR systems, but

 Since these radiation are ionizing, they can also alter cell's structure
or even kill (damage) it completely, hence

 Care should be taken to minimize the cell damage as much as
possible, and
 Instruments exist for measuring radiation dose within safe limits.

 EM radiation
 Interact (i.e. collide) with matter or structures with sizes
similar to their wavelengths, and

 In the process deposit part of their energy to the body.
 Wavelengths of X- and  radiation
 Are typically smaller than 10-8 or 10-9 m, hence
o Are in the range of the radius of an atom, which
o Mean that they interact with matter at atomic level.

 The energy of X- and  radiation is given by:
hc
E

 Which shows that radiation energy is inversely proportional to
wavelength, hence
 The higher the energy of the radiation, the shorter the
wavelength and vice versa, which

 Means X- and  radiation have short- due to their high-E.

 X- and  rays
 Interact with body tissues at the atomic level, hence
 They intact with either the nucleus or orbital electrons, but
 Given the their sizes, interaction with orbital electrons
is more probable because the radius of the atom is very close

to the wavelength of these radiation (all are 10-10 m) than the
radius of the nucleus (10-15 m).

 If radiation interacts with electrons bonding a molecule,
 Then, it will break up the molecule and hence destroy the
molecular make-up of the tissue.
 The collision is such that:
 Low energy radiation interact with a whole atom (heats up),
 Moderate energy radiation interact with orbital electrons, and
 Very high energy radiation interact with the nucleus.

How Radiographic Image is Created
 Fig. shows how radiographic
image is created,
 Where x-ray photons enter pt.’s
body and interact with the atoms

of the body tissues, and
 Body tissues consists of:
o Atoms
Increasing size
o Molecules
o Cells
o Tissues
o Organ structures

Interactions of X-rays with matter
 When X- and  photons collide with body tissue,
they can be
 Absorbed X
o completely removed from beam
o ceases to exist (annihilated)
 Scattered
o change in direction
o carry no useful information
o is a source of noise
 Nothing
o Photon passes unmolested i.e. penetrate undeflected
or removed
Interactions of X-rays with Body
 Fig. shows the three processes
illustrated in previous slide when

x-rays strike the body:
 No interaction (i.e. x-ray passes
unmolested),
 X-ray completely absorbed,
 Partially absorbed with
scattering,

 Note that
 All 3-interaction processes are important in diagnostic imaging:
o The ray that passes without interacting goes thro’ the tissue
without being molested and reach the IR, e.g. film and hence
contribute to image formation .
o The ray which is completely absorbed inside the pt.’s body will not
reach the film and hence contribute no information but increases pt.’s
dose.

 The third fate of x-ray inside the body is that:
 The x-ray is partially absorbed and
 This process is usually referred to as scattering, where
 The photon transfers a fraction of its energy to the tissues and its
direction changes, i.e. deflected.
 Note that
 If scattered radiation reach the film, it can degrade image quality,
and is the primary source of radiation exposure to operator and staff.

Types of Interactions
 Table below lists the five-types of interaction between X-
and  radiation and body tissues.
S/N Type of Interaction Medical Application
1. Coherent scattering Not useful in radiology
2. Compton scattering Diagnostic radiology
3. Photoelectric absorption Diagnostic radiology
4. Pair production Therapeutic radiology
5. Photodisintegration Therapeutic radiology

Coherent Scattering
 Coherent scattering
 Is also call classical scattering or Thompson scattering and
 Occurs for low energy x-rays of 10 keV, and
 The incident X-ray photon interacts with the whole atom and
 Then impacts all its energy to the atom and excite it to a higher
energy level.

Coherent Scattering
 Immediately after excitation
 The atom releases this excess
energy by undergoing de-

excitation, but
 In a different direction, i.e.
change direction, as shown in

this fig.

Coherent Scattering
 In coherent scattering,
 There is no loss of energy and no ionization, but
 The photons are only scattered forward.
 Since coherent scattering involves low energy X-rays,
 Then , it is of little importance in the diagnostic x-ray energy
range (E > 20 keV for mammography).

Coherent Scattering
 In coherent scattering,
 The incident X-rays causes all the
electrons to be excited
simultaneously, which
 Cause them to vibrate resulting in
heat production and deflection of

photon without change in .

Coherent Scattering
 However,
 At 70 kVp only a few %tage of the x-
rays undergo coherent scattering,

and
 These scattered x-rays may
contribute to image graying, which is

called film fogging or simply film
fog.

Compton Scattering
 Compton scattering
 Occurs thro’out the diagnostic imaging
energy range, and

 In this interaction, an incident x-ray
photon interacts with the outer shell electron

(valence) of atom, as shown in Fig, and
 Impacts a fraction of its energy and
dislodges this electron.

Compton Scattering
 Causes both ionization of the
atom and scattering of incident x-

ray photon and
 Hence, make photon energy to
reduce and change direction as

shown in this figure.

Compton Scattering
 The energy of the
Compton-scattered x-ray
 Is equal to energy
difference between that of

incident x-ray photon and
the energy imparted to the
electron.

Compton Scattering
 For Compton scattering to occur,
 The photon must have a fairly high energy, i.e. high kVp,
and
 Each time the photon undergoes Compton scattering, it is
deflected and loses part of its energy, but
 The photon retains most of its original energy and can exit
the body as an energetic scattered photon.

Compton Scattering
 Ionizes the atom, hence eject an electron called Recoil or
Compton electron (see Fig. in next slide), and

 Since the scattered photon exits the pt.’s body, it does not
contribute to the pt.’s dose, but

 It does contribute to the radiologist’s dose and film fog.

Compton Scattering
 Fig. shows how Compton scattering occurs, where
 Incident photon (relatively high energy) interacts with free
(loosely bound) electron and
 Some energy transferred to recoil electron
o electron liberated from atom (ionization)
 Emerging photon has - Electron out
o less energy than incident (recoil electron)
o new direction
Photon out
Photon in

Compton Scattering
 The scattered photon
 Will retain most of its energy, and
 Hence , interacts many times before losing all of it’s energy, i.e.
undergoes cascaded Compton scattering as shown below.
- -
-
-

Compton Scattering
 Note that
 A zero angle deflection will result in no energy loss, but
 As the angle approaches 180o, photons are scattered
backward towards the incident x-ray beam, and

o These photons are called Backscatter Radiation, and
o Higher amount of energy is transferred to the secondary
electron, but
o The photon still retains about 66% of its energy.

Compton Scattering
 Backscatter Radiation
 Are important in radiation therapy, but
 In diagnostic x-ray, this radiation cause the images of the hinges
on the back of the cassette to be formed on the x-ray film, hence

creates image artifacts.
 Note that
 Higher deflection  less energy retained, and
 Photons having small deflections retain most incident energy

Compton Scattering & Angle of Deflection
 Higher incident energy  less photon deflection
 High energy (1MeV) photons primarily scatter forward
 Diagnostic energy photons scatter fairly uniformly
o Both forward & backward
 At diagnostic energy, photons lose very little energy during Compton Scattering
- Electron out
(recoil electron)
deflection
angle
Photon in Photon out

Compton Scattering
 Formula
0o results in no change in
wavelength
  = 0.024 (1-cos Q)
180o results in maximum change in
wavelength
where
  = change in wavelength (Å) for photon
Q = angle of photon deflection (0-180 degrees)
- recoil electron
Angle Q
Photon in Photon out

Compton Effect
 The probability of Compton effect
occurring in body
 Is about the same for soft tissue or bone.
o i.e. independent of Z
 Decreases with increasing photon
energies, and
 Hence, Compton scattering decreases
with increasing kVp.

RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical
8/19/2019 32
Physics
Features of Compton Scattering
 Is most likely to occur with outer-shell electrons or loosely bound electrons.
 As x-ray energy increases, it leads to

 Increased penetration through tissue without interaction, which
 Results in reduced Compton scattering, but
 Its probability is higher than that of photoelectric scatter.
 Increased atomic number of the absorber,
 Has no effect on Compton Scatter
 Increased mass density of absorber,

 Increases Compton Scatter proportionally.

Features of Compton Scattering
 Probability of occurrence of Compton scattering
 Is independent of atomic number (except hydrogen), and
 Is proportional to electron density and electrons per unit gram
(fairly equal for all elements except hydrogen, which is ~

double).
Compton Scattering depends on energy

of the photon and density of absorber.

Compton Effect
 Compton is very important in Radiography, but
 Not in a useful way because it contributes to film fog, since
 Scattered radiation produces a uniform optical density on the
radiograph that reduces image contrast.
 In addition,
 Scattered radiation from Compton contributes to high exposure
to radiologist, hence you should STAY AWAY FROM YOUR

PATIENT or shield yourself as shown in next slide!
Effect of Compton Scatter on
Personnel

MCQs -Examples

MCQs -Examples

MCQs -Examples

Lecture 6a Interaction of Radiation With Matter

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Lecture 6a Interaction of Radiation With Matter

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Resident Physics Lectures

Interaction of Radiation with Matter

 Understand why should radiation interact with body tissues.

 State the five interaction methods between radiation and body

tissues and their application in radiography.

and disadvantages in radiography.

2 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

because of two reasons:

image receptors, and

 Without these two conditions taking place, these radiation

would not be useful for medical imaging.

3 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

receptors in medical imaging) is important for two reasons:

4 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

produce useful diagnosis images on IR systems, but

or even kill (damage) it completely, hence

5 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 Interact (i.e. collide) with matter or structures with sizes

similar to their wavelengths, and

 Wavelengths of X- and  radiation

 Are typically smaller than 10-8 or 10-9 m, hence

o Are in the range of the radius of an atom, which

o Mean that they interact with matter at atomic level.

6 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

wavelength and vice versa, which

7 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 Interact with body tissues at the atomic level, hence

 They intact with either the nucleus or orbital electrons, but

 Given the their sizes, interaction with orbital electrons

is more probable because the radius of the atom is very close

8 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 Then, it will break up the molecule and hence destroy the

molecular make-up of the tissue.

 The collision is such that:

 Low energy radiation interact with a whole atom (heats up),

 Moderate energy radiation interact with orbital electrons, and

 Very high energy radiation interact with the nucleus.

9 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

body and interact with the atoms

10 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

illustrated in previous slide when

 Partially absorbed with

12 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 All 3-interaction processes are important in diagnostic imaging:

13 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 The x-ray is partially absorbed and

 This process is usually referred to as scattering, where

direction changes, i.e. deflected.

 If scattered radiation reach the film, it can degrade image quality,

and is the primary source of radiation exposure to operator and staff.

14 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

15 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 Is also call classical scattering or Thompson scattering and

 Occurs for low energy x-rays of 10 keV, and

16 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 The atom releases this excess

energy by undergoing de-

change direction, as shown in

17 RIB 810, 812 & 813 Medical Physics 8/19/2019

 There is no loss of energy and no ionization, but

 The photons are only scattered forward.

 Since coherent scattering involves low energy X-rays,

 Then , it is of little importance in the diagnostic x-ray energy

range (E > 20 keV for mammography).