Energy spectra of secondary neutrons produced by high-energy bremsstrahlung in carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and tissue

The energy spectra of secondary neutrons produced when bremsstrahlung of end-point energy in the range 10-30 MeV is incident on oxygen, carbon and nitrogen have been calculated. Photonuclear reactions of the type (γ,n) and (γ,pn) have been included. The respective contributions of various nuclear reactions have been adjusted using the published values of experimentally determined cross-sections, or branching ratios, where these are available. Where no such information exists in the literature, the values have been empirically estimated. Agreement has been obtained between the calculated photoneutron spectra from C, N and O at various energies and the available experimentally-measured spectra. The photoneutron spectra from C,N and O have been combined in the right proportion (C5H40O18N) to compute the spectra of secondary neutrons from tissue irradiated with bremsstrahlung of end-point energy from 10-30 MeV. Mean neutron energies and kerma factors for these spectra have been calculated. (author)