Range study of electrons with energies between 110 eV and 50 keV

There are a great number of studies that examines the dependence between energy and range for electrons with energies from some keV's to hundreds of MeV's. However, the quantitative description of low-energy electron transport is a complex problem, especially due to the fact that there are not reliable data available for cross sections of the different possible types of electron interactions with matter. Once the analytic models of electron transport are incomplete or present difficulties to the present insoluble Monte Carlo codes have been the alternative adopted in these approaches and are used extensively nowadays. It is known that the interaction of ionizing radiation with tissue may lead to severe damages in cellular and sub-cellular levels structures. Thus, there is a special interest in the determination of the relationship between initial energy and range for electrons despite the fact that the ionizing radiation energy transfer to the medium occurs predominantly through the interaction of secondary electrons produced in the material - mainly low energy electrons. In this work it is studied the relationship between initial energy and range in biological medium for electrons with energies between 110 eV and 50 keV. Monte Carlo PENELOPE code was used. The simulation of transport of low-energy electrons (110 eV to 50 keV) originated from a monoenergetic isotropic source located inside a homogeneous tissue-equivalent medium was accomplished, and then the quantities of interest were calculated and analyzed. (author)