Photon interaction cross section of C, H, N and O compounds at energy range 500 to 1500 KeV

Complex molecules such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, enzymes, vitamins and hormones perform a variety of physiological functions in biological systems. The µ/r values of such samples are a prerequisite for radiation dosimetry, radiotherapy, shielding etc field. The study of photon interactions with matter is important and the data on the transmission and absorption of X-rays and gamma-rays in biological shielding and dosimetric materials assumed great significance by virtue of their diverse applications in the field of medical physics and medical biology. The photon interaction cross-section can be expressed as a function of the photon energies and the atomic number Z. Photon energies from 1500 keV down to about 5 keV are widely used in medical and biological applications especially during diagnosis and therapy. A thorough knowledge of the nature of interaction of these biologically important complex molecules such as Vitamins is desirable over this energy region. In this work we measured photon interaction atomic and electronic cross section, in the energy range 511 keV to 1500 keV by performing transmission experiments using ¹³⁷Cs, ⁶⁰Co and ²²Na sources using gamma ray spectrometry with a narrow beam good geometry set up was used in the study. The measured data were compared against NIST-Win- Xcom program and found in good agreement. (author)