Experimental investigations of multiple scattering of 662 keV gamma photons in elements and binary alloys

The energy, intensity and angular distributions of multiple scattering of 662 keV gamma photons, emerging from targets of pure elements and binary alloys, are observed as a function of target thickness in reflection and transmission geometries. The observed spectra recorded by a properly shielded NaI (Tl) scintillation detector, in addition to singly scattered events, consist of photons scattered more than once for thick targets. To extract the contribution of multiply scattered photons from the measured spectra, a singly scattered distribution is reconstructed analytically. We observe that the numbers of multiply scattered events increase with increase in target thickness, and saturate for a particular thickness called saturation thickness. The saturation thickness decreases with increasing atomic number. The multiple scattering, an interfering background noise in Compton profiles and Compton cross-section measurements, has been successfully used as a new technique to assign the "effective atomic number" to binary alloys. Monte Carlo calculations support the present experimental results. Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.