Shuhaida Yahud

Biomedical Electronic Engineering

Programme, UniMAP

Lecture Outline

Atomic structure and ionisation

Particulate Radiation
EM Radiation
Radiation Dosimetry

Atomic Structure

An atom = {a nucleus, electrons)

Nucleons = {protons; neutrons}
Mass number A = # nucleons
Atomic number Z = # protons = # electrons
(nonionised state, atom is electrically neutral)

Stable and Unstable States

Stable nuclides:
# neutrons ~= # protons (A ~= 2Z)

Unstable nuclides (radionuclides, radioactive

atoms)
Likely to undergo radioactive decay, which gives
off energy and results in a more stable nucleus.

Orbits of Electrons

Ground state: electrons are in the lowest orbital

shells and within the lowest energy quantum states
within each shell.

Electron Binding Energy

A free electron has higher energy than when it is bounded to an
nuclei in an atom.
Binding energy = the energy required to remove an electron
completely from the atom.
Depends on the element to which the electrons is bound and the shell
within which it resides in ground state
Sufficient to consider average binding energy of a given atom

One electron volt (eV) = Kinetic energy gained by an electron when

accelerated across one volt potential
1 eV = 1.6 e10-19 Joule

Binding energy of typical elements

Hydrogen = 13.5 eV
Air = 29 eV
Lead = 1 KeV
Tungsten = 4 KeV

Ionisation and Excitation

Ionisation is knocking an electron out of an atom
Creates a free electron + ion (an atom with +1 charge)
Occurs when radiated with energy above the electron binding
energy
What happen when electron interact with an ionised atom?

Excitation is knocking an electron to higher orbit

When the radiation energy is lower than the binding energy

After either ionisation or excitation, an atom has higher

energy

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?

Answer = # of ionised atoms is 30

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.

Two types of ionising radiation

Electro-magnetic (EM)
Particulate

Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation

EM radiation has no mass, unaffected by either
electrical or magnetic fields and has constant speed in
a given medium. (Can be described as waves or as
particle-like units of energy called photons or quanta)
EM radiation propagates as a pair of perpendicular
electric and magnetic fields

Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation

Typical EM Waves:
Non-ionising: radio, microwaves, infrared, visible
light, ultraviolet
Ionising: X-rays, Gamma rays

Electromagnetic (EM) Radiation

When interact with matter, EM radiation can
exhibit particle-like behaviour, called photons.
The energy of a photon is given by:

The speed (c), wavelength, and frequency of

all wave are related by

c v

EM Waves for Medical Imaging

Gamma rays
Used in Nuclear Medicine
Created in the nuclei of radioactive atoms due to radioactive
decay or characteristic radiation

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

Particulate Radiation by Energetic

Electrons
We are only concerned with the electron
accelerated in an X-ray tube
An electron accelerated across a tube at 100 KV
potential possesses 100 KeV Kinetic Energy

Energetic Electron Interactions

Two primary interactions
Collisional transfer
Most common
Produces heat

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

Occasionally, a large fraction of the incident energy is

transferred to another electron, the newly free electron
may form a delta ray
The incident electrons path may be redirected, and
many other subsequent interactions may occur, until
the kinetic energy of the incident electron is exhausted

Excitation, Ionisation and Radiative

Losses
EMR

(A) LHF shows excitation

and RHF de-excitation
with subsequent release
of EM radiation
(B) Ionisation and
production of Delta ray

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)

Charged Particle Tracks

Electrons (e-) follow tortuous paths in matter as the result of
multiple scattering events caused by coulombic deflections
(repulsion/scattering) as in (A)
Larger mass of heavy charged particle (alpha particles)
results in dense and usually linear ionisation track.
Path Length = actual distance the particle travels
Range = actual depth of penetration of the particle in matter

Linear Energy Transfer (LET)

LET is the amount of energy deposited per unit length
(eV/cm)
LET of charged particle is proportional to Q2/Ek
LET of a particular type of radiation describes the
energy deposition density which largely determines the
biologic consequence of radiation exposure
High LET radiation: 2+, p+, and other heavy ions
Low LET radiation:
- Electrons (e-,- and +)
- EM radiation (x-rays or -rays)
High LET are much more damaging to tissue than low
LET radiation

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)

Occasionally when the incident electron collides with the nucleus,

the electron is annihilated, emitting a photon with an energy equal
to the kinetic energy of the incident electron (highest possible
energy)
Primary source of x-rays from an x-ray tube

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

Excitation _ and _ Ionisation 820

Where Ek is the kinetic energy of incident electron in

MeV, and Z is the atomic number of the absorber
Thus, for an 100 keV e- collide with tungsten (Z=74) the
bremsstrahlung x-ray production accounts for
approximately 1% energy loss,

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

Probability of 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?

Probability of Photoelectric Effect

The probability of photoelectric absorption per unit
mass is approximately proportional to Z3/E3, where Z is
the atomic number and E is the energy of incident
photon.
More likely when colliding with an atom with more
photons (higher Z number)
Less likely when incident photons have higher energy
(higher frequency).
The probability increases abruptly when photon energy
rises above the binding energy of L- or K-shell electrons (so
as to eject the electrons), then begins to diminish
Rationale behind the use of contrast agent

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.