Determination of the effective atomic numbers of FexCu1xbinary ferroalloysusing a nondestructive technique: Rayleigh-to-Compton scattering ratio

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to determine effective atomic numbers (Zeff) of FexCu1xbinary ferroalloysusing scattering of 59.54 keV gamma photons at 130◦(x= 4:36A1) scattering angle. For this purpose, the Rayleigh(R) and Compton (C) scattering intensities for the given alloys were measured using a monoenergetic beam of 59.54keV gamma rays and the Rayleigh-to-Compton scattering ratioR=Cwas determined. Then theZeffvalues of thesealloys were determined by interpolating theR=Cof the material using theR=Cdata of adjacent elements in betweentheR=Cof the alloys. For comparison,Zeffs of alloys were also calculated using direct and interpolation methodsin term of scatteringR=Cand attenuation of gamma photons. Good agreement in relative differences betweenZeffs(experimental and theoretical) was found (maximum of3.3% for total att.-direct method) for the chosen alloys andthe Rayleigh-to-Compton scattering ratio was shown to be a complementary approach to determine the effective atomicnumber of binary ferroalloys. In addition, a polynomial equation between the experimentalR=Cvalues and the massattenuation coefficients of alloys was developed to estimate the mass attenuation coefficient of different materials.