Transition of gamma ray energy

[Rodb]

Hello I am new to the forums and I really wanted feedback on this concept. I apologize if I make mistakes in my writing and please feel free to correct misinformation, thanks.

 

The concept's main idea is the transition of gamma ray energy in to dispersed energy spread through the ejection of electrons. This is a hypothetical example question and how the idea would "help" it. For this example I am trying to reduce the energy and widen the wavelength of a gamma ray.

 

Example: You start with a gamma ray with 20 KeV and it collides with an electron that takes 13 KeV to excite it enough to eject its electron. After the electron and the photon collide you are left with a gamma ray with 7 KeV energy. To reduce this gamma ray further you need to collide it with weaker bonds. Insulators by definition hold on to electrons "harder" while conductors do the opposite. My idea is to combine molecules with differentiating bond strengths in to a large "shell" for nuclear waste. Every time the gamma ray collides with an electron it becomes more likely that the gamma ray will hit more electrons because its length is widening. The idea is to keep running that gamma ray in to different molecules to keep breaking down the strength of the photon.

 

Thanks

[swansont]

Binding energies are of the order eV, not keV — at that energy the bonds have a negligible effect. You will get Compton scattering, but there is a maximum energy loss http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/quantum/compeq.html

 

So the largest change in wavelength you can have is 2h/mc or 4.85 x 10^-12 m

 

E=hc/L

 

A 20 keV photon has a wavelength of 6.2 x 10^-11m

After a scatter, it can have a wavelength of about 6.7 x 10^-11m, which is around 18.5 keV

 

The cross-section does scale depending on Z, the number of protons and therefore electrons, so you want large nuclei, which is why lead is often used as shielding. (Anything with larger Z is necessarily radioactive, which tends to lessen its usefulness.)

Edited September 5, 2011 by swansont
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