Interaction of radiation

with matter

Dr Santam Chakraborty
Junior resident
Department of radiotherapy.
PGIMER

Moderator: Dr. T.S. Kehwar

 Nature of radiation
• The term radiation applies to the emission and propagation of
energy through space or a material medium.

• Types of radiation:
– Electromagnetic radiation.
– Particulate radiation.

• Electromagnetic radiation:
– Mode of energy propagation for phenomena such as light
waves, heat waves, x-rays, γ-rays etc.
– Was defined by Maxwell in terms of oscillating electrical and
magnetic fields.
– Electromagnetic radiation has a dual nature The spectrum of
the electromagnetic irradiation ranges from the wavelength of
107 m (radio waves) to 10-13 m (Ultra high-energy x-rays).
– X rays and γ rays are the two major forms of electromagnetic
radiation used in modern day radiotherapy.
– The difference among the two lies in the mode of production:
• X rays are produced when high speed electrons collide with outer
electrons.
• γ rays are produced by intranuclear disintegration.

• Particulate radiation:
– Refers to the energy propagated by traveling corpuscles,
which have definite rest mass, definite momentum and a
defined position at any instant.
– Elementary atomic particles: electron, proton, neutron.
– Positron, neutrino and mesons are subatomic particles.
Nature of matter
• The smallest indivisible part of an element is known as Atom.
• The atom is made up of the nuclei and orbital electrons. The
nucleus contains two types of particles, protons, which are
positively charged and neutrons, which have no charge. The
electrons are negatively charged and their number is equal to
the number of protons, which makes the atom electrically
neutral.
• Atoms are specified as ZXA where Z = atomic number, and A
= mass number.
• According to Niels Bohr, electrons revolve in specific orbits
around the nucleus. These orbits are named as K,L,M etc; K
being innermost orbit.
• These electron orbits are synonymous with energy levels.
• Here energy refers to the potential energy of the electron.
This energy depends upon the magnitude of the coulomb
forces of attraction between the nucleus and the orbital
electrons. Higher the atomic number greater is this binding
energy.

Fig 1 : Bohr’s model of the Fig 2 : Energy level diagram

atom (Hydrogen Nucleus)
 Radiation Interaction (overview):
• When an x-ray or γ ray beam
Photon
passes through a medium,
interactions occur between the
photon and the matter and energy
is transferred to the medium. Matter

• The initial step in energy transfer

involves ejection of electrons from
the atoms of the absorbing Photoelectric Compton Pair
effect Scatter production
medium which in turn, transfer
their energy by producing
ionization and excitation of the
atoms along their path. High Speed
electrons

• The photon-beam may undergo

the following four processes:
– Attenuation.
Matter
– Absorption.
– Scattering.
– Transmission.
• Attenuation refers to the removal Ionization Excitation Heat

of radiation from the beam by the

matter. Attenuation may occur
due to scattering and absorption.
• Absorption refers to the taking Chemical
X rays Recombination
up of the energy from the beam effects

by the irradiated material. It is

absorbed energy, which is
important in producing the Biological effects

radiobiological effects.
• Scattering refers to a change in
the direction of the photons and Fig. 3 Interaction of photons
with matter
its contributes to both attenuation
and absorption.
• Any photon, which does not suffer
the above processes is
transmitted.
 Attenuation:
• When monoenergetic radiation passes through any material, a
reduction in the intensity of the beam occurs, which is known
as attenuation.
• Attenuation occurs exponentially, that is a given fraction of
the photos is removed for a given thickness of the attenuating
material.
• Exponential attenuation of a photon-
beam means that it is impossible to
reduce this beam to nothing.

Fig 5: Semilog plot showing

exponential attenuation of a
monoenergetic photon beam.

• The thickness of an absorber required to attenuate the intensity

of a monoenergetic photon-beam to half its original value is
known as the half-value-layer (HVL).
• The half-value-layer is also an expression of the quality or the
penetrating power of an x-ray beam.
• However, X-rays produced by a generator consist of a spectrum
of photon energies. Attenuation of this beam is not exponential.

2nd HVL

1st HVL
Attenuation Coefficients:
• The fractional reduction produced in any monoenergetic
photon-beam is constant for any given material per unit
thickness
• This constant is known as the linear attenuation coefficient.
• The linear attenuation coefficient (μ) is an expression of the
probability of the photon being removed by a given material.
• The linear attenuation coefficient is related to the half-value-
layer by the following expression:
μ = 0.693 / HVL
• The linear attenuation coefficient depends upon the density of
the material, and this makes it’s a less fundamental coefficient.
Thus compression of a layer of material to one half of the
thickness will not affect its attenuation.
• To circumvent this problem, the mass attenuation coefficient is
used which is defined as:
Mass attenuation coefficient = μ / ρ
• Other coefficients which are more fundamental include:
– Atomic attenuation coefficient.
– Electronic attenuation coefficient.

•Various materials used for measurement of HVLs :

Generation ≤ 30kV 30-150 kV 120-600kV 500 kV- 2 MV

Energy
Material Cellophane Aluminum Copper Lead
 Processes causing attenuation:
• There are five major physical processes, which are responsible
for photon-beam attenuation:
– Coherent scattering.
– Photoelectric effect.
– Compton effect.
– Pair production.
– Photo disintegration.

Coherent scattering:
• This is also known as elastic scattering, Thomson scattering,
unmodified scattering, classical scattering, Rayleigh scattering,
etc.
• This is one of the processes, which can be more easily described
by considering radiation as waves rather than as photons. In
addition it is also one of the interactions, where bound electrons
are involved.
• X-rays passing close to the atom cause the bound electrons to
vibrate momentarily at a frequency equal to that of the radiation.
These in turn emit radiation of the same frequency in all
directions.
• The energy is taken up from the beam and scattered in all
direction, but none of the energy is absorbed. Thus this is a form
of attenuation without absorption.
• This interaction is of little importance
in practical radiotherapy, but is
important in X-ray
crystallography.
• Since it involves bound electrons, it
occurs more in higher atomic number
materials, and also more with low-
energy radiations.
Photoelectric effect:
• In this phenomena, the photon disappears altogether after
interacting with the bound electron, some of the energy being
used to remove the electrons from the shell, while the rest is
imparted as kinetic energy to the photo-electron.
hν - W + ½ mν2
• The term W refers to the binding energy of the electron and the
term ½ mν2 refers to the kinetic energy of the photo electron.
• The ionized atom regains electrical neutrality by rearrangement
of the other orbital electrons. The electrons that undergo the
these rearrangements surrender some of the energy in form of a
photon known as the characteristic radiation of the atom.
• Absorption of these characteristic radiation internally in the
atom may result in emission of Auger electrons. These
electrons are monoenergetic in nature.
• The energy of the characteristic radiation (fluorescent
radiation) varies from atom to atom, and for low atomic
number elements, which make up most of the biological
materials, it is of such low energy that it is probably absorbed
by the same cell in which the initial event occurs.
• The mass photoelectric attenuation coefficient (τ/ρ) is
directly proportional to the cube of the atomic number and
inversely proportional to the cube of the radiation energy.
τ/ρ = k Z3/ E3
• The angular distribution of electrons emitted in the
photoelectric process depend upon the photon energy. As the
photon energy increases the photo electrons are emitted in a
more forward direction.

Fig. 6 : The photo electric

effect
 Photoelectric effect:
• Graphs of mass photoelectric attenuation coefficients plotted
against photon energy, and for different materials reveal
several important and interesting features.
• As the graph on the right shows,
they are discontinuities in the
attenuation coefficient at specific
photon energies.
• These are known as absorption
edges.
• These absorption edges,
correspond to the binding
energies of the electrons in
different shells.
• When the photon has an energy equal to the binding energy of the
corresponding shell, resonance occurs and the probability of
photoelectric absorption, involving the shell becomes very high.
Beyond this the probability of absorption varies inversely, with the
cube of energy (E3).
• The photoelectric effect has several important implications in
practical radiology:
• In diagnostic radiology, the primary mode of interaction is
photoelectric. It is also responsible for the contrast effect.
• In therapeutic radiology, low-energy beams in orthovoltage
irradiation caused excessive absorption of energy in bone.
• The phenomena of absorption edges is important for two
different reasons:
• At these absorption edges, low-energy photons are less
attenuated and therefore more penetrating than high
energy photons.
• A substance is relatively transparent to its own
characteristic radiation. This effect is important when filters
are considered as the filters will be “transparent” to their own
characteristic radiation.
 Compton effect:
• Also known as modified, incoherent and inelastic scattering.
• First elucidated by Arthur H. Compton in 1923,the Compton
effect was accepted as the final proof for the dual nature of
light and established the legitimacy of the quantum theory.

Fig. 7 : Compton’s
experiment

• In this type of interaction, photons interact with free electrons.

• The photon collides with electron and hands over part of its energy
to it. The angle through which the photon is scattered, the energy
handed on to the electron, and energy lost by the photon are
interconnected.

• If the angle by which the electron is

scattered is θ and the angle by which
the photon is scattered is φ, then the
following formula describes the change
in the wavelength (δλ)of the photon:

λ1 – λ2 = δλ = 0.024 ( 1- cos φ) Å
• Thus the wavelength change depends neither on the material being
irradiated nor on the radiation energy, but only upon the angle
through which the radiation is scattered.
• The Compton effect results in both attenuation and absorption.
Compton effect (contd.):
• The attenuation produced by the Compton effect is described
by the mass scattering coefficient (σ/ρ), and is practically
same for all substances except hydrogenous material, like
water and soft tissue, where the Compton effect is greater
(because of the higher electron density).

Practical Implications:
Attenuation doesn't • Thus concrete is as good as lead in
depend on the shielding of megavoltage equipment!
atomic number • The absorption in bones doesn't exceed
that produced in the soft tissues – unlike in
PE effect seen in orthovoltage radiation era.
• There is no Bone shielding phenomenon
unlike that seen in orthovoltage radiation.
• Port films produced in megavoltage
equipment have very little detail.

The fraction of the This means that higher beam energies allow
energy imparted to greater absorption of the dose in the body
the recoil electron with less scattering of energy. Thus with
increases as the increasing photon energy greater absorption
beam energy occurs relative to attenuation.
increases
Direction of the This implies that as the photon energy
scatter depends on increases there is a corresponding increase in
the energy of the the forward scatter of the beam. This results
incident photon in better dose distribution.
beam
Energy of the This has several important implications in
scattered radiation designing radiation protection. The maximum
is independent of energy of photons with 90° scatter is 0.511
the incident beam MeV while that for 180° scatter ( i.e.. Back
energy scatter) is 0.255 MeV. The energy of the
photons scattered at angles <90 ° will be more
than .511 MeV and will gradually approach the
incident photon energy.
Bone Hydrogen

Muscle Water
Pair production:
• When the photon with energy in excess of 1.02 MeV passes
close to the nucleus of an atom, the photon disappears, and a
positron and an electron appear. This effect is known as pair
production.
• Pair production results in attenuation of the beam with
absorption.
• The particles tend to travel in a foreword direction related to
the incident photon and while any energy distribution is
possible the most probable distribution of energy is for each
particle to acquire half of the available kinetic energy.
• The positron created as a result loses its energy by interaction
with an electron to give rise to two annihilation photons, each
having 0.51MeV energy. Again because momentum is
conserved in the process to photons are rejected in opposite
directions. This reaction is known as an annihilation
reaction.
• Thus, the energy absorbed from the beam (with incident
energy, E) is given by:
E - 1.02 MeV
• Pair production results from an interaction with the
electromagnetic field of the nucleus and as such the
probability of this process increases rapidly with the atomic
number (Z2).
• In addition, the likelihood of this interaction increases as the
photon energy increases in contrast to the Compton effects
and the photoelectric effect.
• The pair production coefficient (π) is directly proportional to Z2
and log of incident photon energy.

π = k Z2 log (E)
Photo nuclear reaction:
• This reaction occurs when the photon has energy greater than
the binding energy of the nucleus itself. In this case, it enters
the nucleus and ejects a particle from it. The photon
disappears altogether, and any energy possesses in excess of
that needed to remove the particle becomes the kinetic
energy of escape of that particle.
• The threshold energy for this effect is 10.8 MeV, and a
maximum is reached about 5 MeV above this threshold.
• The main importance of this reaction lies in the
unsubstantiated fear that ejection of a nuclear particle may
result in the nucleus becoming radioactive. This had lead to
the assumptions that patients may become radioactive
following megavoltage radiotherapy in the earlier days of this
technique.
• Nowadays, the main use of this reaction is for energy
calibration of machines producing high energy photons. For
this the following reaction is used:
29Cu +γ  29Cu62 + 0n1
63
Relative importance the reactions:
• The total mass attenuation coefficient is the sum of three
individual coefficients; photoelectric coefficient, mass
scattering coefficient and pair production coefficient:
(μ/ρ) = (τ/ρ)+(σ/ρ)+(π/ρ)
• When we plot the total coefficient versus the photon energy,
in different media, the following effects are seen:
• At low energies the mass attenuation coefficient is larger,
especially in high atomic number media, because of the
predominance of photoelectric interactions in these
circumstances.
• That attenuation coefficient then decreases rapidly with the
energy till the photon energy far exceeds the electron binding
energy and Compton effect becomes the predominant mode
of interaction. In between the ranges of 200 KeV- 4 MeV,
Compton scattering is the predominant mode of interaction.
• At this energy range, the mass attenuation coefficients also
become independent of the atomic number and actually
become more for soft tissues, which have more hydrogen
content.
• Beyond 4 MeV pair production results in increasing mass
attenuation coefficients specially for high atomic number
elements.
• Thus very high-energy radiations (> 20 MeV) are less-
penetrating than some lower energy radiations and are not
used in radiotherapy!!
– Up to 50KeV – PE effect is important.
– 60 KeV - 90 KeV – Both PE and Compton effects are important.
– 200 KeV – 4 MeV – Compton effect is increasingly important.
– Beyond 20 MeV – Pair production becomes important.
Absorption:
• Most of electrons set in motion by the above interactions lose
energy by inelastic collisions with the atomic electrons of
the material.
• Some electrons will also loose energy by bremsstrahlung
interactions with the nuclei. This energy is irradiated out of
the local volume as x-rays and is therefore not included in the
calculation of locally absorbed energy.
• Thus, the energy absorption coefficient(μen) is defined as
the product of the energy transfer coefficient(μtr) and (1-g)
where g is the fraction of energy of secondarily charged
particles lost to bremsstrahlung in the material.
μen = μtr (1-g)
• In most interactions involving the soft tissues, the
bremsstrahlung component is negligible, and the energy
absorption coefficient is equal to the energy transfer
coefficient under these conditions.
• The relationship between the mass attenuation coefficients
and the mass absorption coefficient varies as per the radiation
energy as follows:
91%

% of attenuated energy
absorbed

μ/ρ
Mass coefficient

μen
%
96
%
%

71
15

%
46

10 KeV
100 KeV 1 MeV 10 MeV

Photon energy
 Absorption (contd.):
• The mass absorption coefficients are practically identical for
most biological materials over a wide range of energies in
which the Compton process predominates as this effect does
not depend upon the atomic number. In this energy range,
the absorption per gram is maximum for hydrogen, because
of its higher electron density.
• However in very high and very low energy ranges the high
atomic number materials e.g. Bone absorb more radiation
with several unfortunate consequences.
• The situation is remarkably different in case of low-energy
radiation, where higher than atomic number greater is the
energy absorbed.
• Also, in very high energy ranges where pair production
predominates, the mass absorption coefficients again become
higher for the higher atomic number elements.

Spatial distribution of secondary radiation:

• Recoil electrons: Usually travel forwards, never making an
angle of more than 90° with the direction of the initial photon.
• Photoelectrons and electron pairs : Usually tend to travel
forward, initially for higher-energy radiation.
• Characteristic and annihilation radiation: Isotropic, that is,
given out equally in all directions.
• Coherently scattered photons: Isotropic.
• Compton scatter photons: Usually in a forward direction
having suffered comparatively small angle scattering (lesser
scattering for greater incident energy).
 Interactions of particulate radiation:
• Particulate radiation can be classified into two categories:
– Ionizing or charged particles.
– Uncharged particles.
• The main charged particles used in radiotherapy are:
– Electron,
– Proton
– Pi – mesons (pions).
• The two different modes of interaction and energy transfer of
electrons with matter include:
– Collision between the particle and the electron cloud
resulting in ionization and excitation ( more important in
low atomic number elements). This is called Collisional
loss.
– Collision between the nucleus and the particle resulting in
bremsstrahlung radiation (more in high atomic number
elements). This is called Radiative loss.
– This difference is due to the higher binding energy of the
electrons and the fewer electrons per gram in higher atomic
number elements .
• Ionization results in the stripping of electrons from atom and
may produce ionization in it’s own turn – when it is called δ
rays.
• Electrons are light particles with negligible mass and single
negative charge. As a result they penetrate deeper than other
charged particles but at the same time undergo greater
scattering.
• The ionization pattern produced by a beam of electrons is
characterized by a constant value from the surface to a depth
equal to about half the range, followed by a rapid falling off to
almost zero at a depth equal to the range. The
bremsstrahlung radiation produced when electrons slow down
contributes to an insignificant dose beyond the range of any
electron. This is specially seen in electrons in the energy range
of 6 -15 MeV – making these useful in clinical practice.
• These characteristics make electrons a useful treatment
modality for superficial lesions.
Practical Implications (electrons):
Ionization and This leads to the phenomenon of greater
excitation are ionization in soft tissues relative to
more for low bones.
atomic materials

The amount of This is of practical importance as

radiative loss is radioactive isotopes which are produce
proportional to the high energy beta radiation are better
square of the stored in low atomic number materials
atomic number of e.g. plastics as they will lead to lesser
the material bremsstrahlung radiation.
Also higher atomic number elements are
better for x ray production.

The low mass of This leads to a “smudging” of the

the electron leads Bragg's peak which is not seen in
to greater electrons.
scattering.
Polarization in This leads to dosimetric inaccuracies
heavier atomic when using air containing ion chambers.
weight elements.
Interactions of particulate radiation:
• Protons and pi mesons are charged particles that are being
used in experimental set-ups only.
• These particles have a very high linear energy transfer
(LET) that is they have a very high ionization density.
• Further, these charged particles also exhibit the phenomena
of Bragg’s peak which refers to the increased ionization
occurring near the end of the track with little effect beyond.
• The ionization produced by mesons at the end of the track is
even more intense and is often referred to as star formation.
• However there are several practical and theoretical difficulties
with the use of these charged particles. Some of them
include:
– The narrow Bragg peak makes a homogenous Tumor
Dose difficult..
– Generation of these charged particles requires expensive
and large machines.
– The method of the production ensures that the field size
is very narrow. So, for treatment of cancers the beam has
to be scanned back and forth across the treatment area,
which complicates overall treatment.
– The large machines necessary for production of these
beams often make it necessary to move the patient
instead of the gantry!
Interactions of neutrons:
• Neutrons are indirectly ionizing uncharged radiations, which
interact only with the nucleus in two ways:
– By recoiling protons from hydrogen and the nucleus in other
elements.
– Nuclear disintegration, which contribute to ~30% of the total dose
in tissues.
• The most efficient recoil is seen in the hydrogen nucleus and
this leads to the maximum absorption. This is an advantage
because most of the soft tissues in the body contains a large
proportion of hydrogen.
• This phenomenon has some practical implications:
– Hydrogenous materials like fats absorb neutrons more than heavier
materials and thus there is a 20% greater absorption in fat relative
to muscle.
– Lower atomic materials (e.g. fats and paraffin) are better for neutron
shielding as compared to lead as greater absorption occurs.
• The recoil protons, set in motion after interaction with neutrons.
further cause ionization. The dense ionization produced by these
particles in the vicinity, results in high LET values.
• Neutrons, being uncharged particles also penetrate deeply
into matter Despite these attractive radiobiological and physical
properties, neutrons are not commonly used in practical
radiotherapy, because of technical difficulties in production of
these beams as well as their complicated dosimetry.
• LET has certain important radiobiological implications:
– High LET radiation is more likely to induce lethal damage in the cells
due to the dense ionization they produce.
– The oxygen enhancement ratio nears 1 as the LET increases –
advantage in hypoxic tumors.
– The effect of fractionation reduces as LET increases.
– High LET radiation preferentially increase the repair independent
damage in the cells.
– High LET radiation also leads to reduced variability in the cell cycle
dependant radiosensitivity of cells.
Biological correlates:
• Cellular damage may occur directly when the radiation
interacts with the atom directly ( e.g. neutrons) or indirectly
when interaction occurs by secondary electrons (e.g. photon
beams).
• Electrons produced by the ionizing events lead to further
ionizations as they move inside biological material --> these
lead to the formation of highly reactive free radicals like OH-,
H- radicals which in turn lead to chemical changes by breaking
chemical bonds.
• Some of these reactions are potentially damaging to the cell,
others effectively inactivate the radicals.
• The reactions that most commonly lead to cell damage usually
occur at the level of the DNA although they may occur at the
level of cell membranes, proteins etc.

Premitotic death (? Membrane

damage – interphase) Senescence

Clonogenic cell surviving after mitosis

Post mitotic death after division(s):

• Apoptotic
M • Necrotic
• Senescent
DNA
damage/ Mitotic death – apoptotic / necrotic
misrepair
Death after failed mitosis:
• Failed division -> multimicronucleated cells
Breakage and (mitotic catastrophe)
rejoining leads to
• Multi polar division -> death
-> dicentrics,
rings, acentric • Nondisjunction -> Change in chromosome
fragments, content.
translocations etc.
Conclusions:
• The three major forms of interaction of radiation with
matter, which are of clinical importance in
radiotherapy are:
1. Compton effect.
2. Photoelectric effect.
3. Pair production.
• Out of these, the Compton effect is the most
important in modern-day megavoltage radiation
therapy.
• The reduced scattering suffered by high-energy
radiation as well as the almost homogeneous tissue
dosage is primarily due to the Compton effect.
• The photoelectric effect is of primary importance in
diagnostic radiology and has only historical importance
in present day radiotherapy.
• Despite several decades of research, photon-beam still
constitute the main therapeutic modality in
radiotherapy, because of several unresolved technical
problems with the use of particulate radiation.