Monte Carlo study of backscattering of β rays from various monoatomic slabs

A Monte Carlo study of the backscattering coefficients and backscattering intensity of β rays from 204Tl and 90Y sources from slabs of Al, Cu, Sn, Tb, and Pb of different thicknesses is carried out. The results for angles of incidence 0 degree, 30 degree, 45 degree, and 60 degree and absorber thicknesses of 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, and 50 mg/cm2 for 204Tl β rays and thicknesses of 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, and 190 mg/cm2 for 90Y β rays are given in tabular form. On using normalization factors good agreement with the measurements of Sharma and Singh is obtained. A phenomenological attempt to investigate a relationship between the backscatter intensity and atomic number Z of the backscatterer indicates that the backscattered intensity is a linear function of ln Z(Z+1). A partial theoretical justification for this relationship is given