The Fundamental Gamma Rays and Charge Particle Interactions of the CeBr 3 Scintillator

Abstract The research aims to study the primary interaction between gamma radiation in CeBr3 crystal. The analysis of mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), effective atomic number (Z eff), electron density (N eff), mean free path (MFP), and energy absorption buildup factor (EABF) was evaluated using the using the WinXCom software. Also, the interaction with charged particles as the total mass stopping power (TMSP), projected range (PR) of proton ( ) and alpha ( ) particles were evaluated by SRIM programming. The results found that the MAC depends on the energy ranges, the photoelectric effect is the main interaction at low energy ranges, Compton scattering phenomena illustrate and evidents at intermediate energy ranges, and pair production characteristics dominate over on 1.022 MeV in high energy ranges. Moreover, absorption edges appear on energy’s discontinuity at low energy. The Z eff and N eff show similar trends and correspond to the energy ranges. The MFP of the CeBr3 compared with some standard scintillators such as NaI and BGO crystal and found that the BGO responds to faster interaction than CeBr3 and NaI crystals. The EABF shows scattering energies followed by atomic equivalent (Z eq), and they also increase with increasing penetration depth (mfp). The TMSP and PR depend on charged particles, density, and the unit path distance of a material.