Energy dependence of total photon attenuation coefficients of composite materials

Total photon attenuation coefficients of several composite materials (alloys, compounds, plastics, biological materials and soils) have been calculated over a wide energy range from 10 keV to 100 GeV. In the intermediate energy region, where incoherent scattering is the most dominant process, the attenuation coefficient (cm2/g) is found to be constant for all types of materials at a particular energy, whereas significant variation in the value μ/ρ is observed in the low and high energy regions. The variations of total photon attenuation coefficients for several composite materials in different energy regions, indicating Z-dependence of the interaction processes, are presented in the form of graphs. (author)