11.
KERMA 23
An average value of (/.L~,./P)for the spectrum q ' ( E ) is given by
(2.5a)
C. Relation of Kerma to Fluence for Neutrons
Equations (2.4) and (2.5) could be applied to neutrons as well asx- and y-ray photons,
but this is not customary. Usually neutron fields are described in terms of flux density
and fluence, instead of energy flux density and energy fluence as is usually the case with
photons. Thus for consistency a quantity called the knmafuctor F, is tabulated for
neutrons instead of the mass energy-transfer coefficient:
, ~ given in units of crn2/g, the neutron energy E in this relation is
If ( C ( J P ) ~ is
commonly expressed in g-radheutron in place of MeVIneutron, through the fol-
lowing unit conversion:
E(-"") X 1.602 X lop6-
erg X 10-2 rad = E(-) g rad
neutron MeV erg. neutron
(2.7)
so that the energy of a 1-MeV neutron is also 1.602 X g-rad.
Thus, instead of Eq. (2.4), for monoenergetic neutrons one uses the following
relation:
= '% * (Fn)E,Z (rad) (2.8)
where 4) is the fluence of monoenergetic neutrons of energy E in neutronslcm' and
(Fn)E,zis the kerma factor for those neutrons in the irradiated material Z, so that
K is given directly in rads or centiGrays (cGy).
Likewise, for neutrons having an energy spectrum cP'(E)of particle fluence, Eq.
(2.5) can be replaced by
K = 1
P Em,
E=O
cP'(E) . (F,,)E,ZdE (rad)
where '%'(E)is commonly in units of neutronslcm' MeV, (Fn)E,Zrepresents tab-
ulated kerrna-factor values in rad cm'lneutron, and dE is expressed in MeV.
Tabulations of (Fn)E,Zfor a wide range of neutron energies and materials have
been published by Caswell et al. (1980); an extract of those tables is contained in
Appendix F. Future tables may be expressed in Gy rn'ln.
An average value of F, for the spectrum cP'(E) is given by
24 QUANTITIES FOR DESCRIBING THE INTERACTION OF IONIZING RADIATION
r
D. Components of Kerma
The kerma for x- or y-rays consists of the energy transferred to electrons and pos-
itrons per unit mass of medium. The kinetic energy of a fast electron may be spent
in two ways:
1. Coulomb-force interactions with atomic electrons of the absorbing material,
resulting in the local dissipation of the energy as ionization and excitation
in or near the electron track. These are called collision interactions.
2. Radiative interactions with the Coulomb force field of atomic nuclei, in which
x-ray photons (bremsstrahlung, or “braking radiation”) are emitted as the
electron decelerates. These x-ray photons are relatively penetrating com-
pared to electrons and they carry their quantum energy far away from the
charged-particle track.
In addition, a positron can lose an appreciable fraction of its kinetic energy through
in-flight annihilation, in which the kinetic energy possessed by the particle at the
instant of annihilation appears as extra quantum energy in the resulting photons.
Hence this is also a type of radiative loss of kinetic energy, in which the resulting
photons can carry kinetic energy away from the charged-particle track.
Since the kerma includes kinetic energy received by the charged particles whether
it is destined to be spent by the electrons in collision or radiative-type interactions,
we can subdivide K into two parts according to whether the energy is spent nearby
in creating excitation and ionization (K,)or is carried away by photons (K,):
K = K, + K, (2.10)
where the subscripts refer to ‘‘collision” and “radiative” interactions, respectively.
For the case of neutrons as the indirectly ionizing radiation, the resulting charged
particles are protons and heavier recoiling nuclei, for which K,is vanishingly small.
Thus K = K , for neutrons, and we need not consider the partition of K in that case.
It will be convenient in discussing the concept of charged-particle equilibrium
(CPE) in Chapter 4 if we now define the collision kmna (K,) in a manner corresponding
to that employed for K in Eqs. (2.1) and (2.2).
Let E:, be the related stochastic quantity called the nd en eu transferred, which can
r
be defined for a volume Vas
E:, = - (R,,,),”””‘ - R:
(Ri,,),, + CQ = E ~ , - R: (2.1 1)
where RI is the radiant energy emitted as radiative losses by the charged particles