Angular distribution of multiple Compton scattered gamma rays of 662 keV in tin

Abstract

In multiple Compton scattering, the incident gamma photon is scattered more than once due to finite dimensions of the sample. It serves as a noise for the exact evaluation of electron momentum distribution in Compton profile, Compton cross section and non-destructive testing of in-assessable large samples. To overcome these difficulties, there is a need to characterise the contribution of multiple scattering as a function of atomic number, scattering angle and incident gamma photon energy. In the present work, measurements are carried out to investigate the multiple scattering of 662 keV photons with tin sample of different thickness in the forward and backward hemispheres. The scattered photon flux is recorded by a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector and with an HPGe solid-state detector to check for the trend of saturation thickness as a function of resolution of the detector. The number of multiply scattered photons is found to be increasing with the sample thickness up to a particular thickness value called saturation thickness beyond which it remains constant with increase in target thickness. The effect of detector collimator size on multiply scattered photons is also studied. Both the detectors show the same trend of saturation thickness as a function of thickness. Angular distribution of multiply scattered photons shows symmetry around 90° scattering angle. The low energy side of multiple scattered photon spectrums is also characterised as a function of sample thickness and order of scattering. Monte Carlo calculations support the present experimental results.