Study on Tl-204 simultaneous electron and photon emission spectra and their interaction with gold absorbers. Experimental results and Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

This work presents the experimental spectra obtained with different gold absorbers for incident electron and photon radiation induced by Tl-204. The energy spectra of beta and X-rays after penetrating gold of various thicknesses were obtained simultaneously by using a beta-X Si(Li) spectrometer without a beryllium window. Gold was chosen as the absorbent material since in recent studies an enhancement of radiation effects on biological systems has been demonstrated in the presence of gold nanoparticles, and thus the detailed microscopic description and understanding of radiation transport in this medium is becoming of high importance. This study also applied Monte Carlo codes GEANT4 and TRAX to simulate primary and secondary particle interactions in gold. Comparisons between the simulations and our corresponding experimental studies are then presented and discussed.