Effect of detector collimation on the measured mass attenuation coefficients of some elements for 59.5–661.6 keV gamma-rays

Mass attenuation coefficients were determined experimentally for Sc, Ni and W for gamma energies of 59.5, 122, 276, 302, 356, 383 and 662 keV for different detector collimator diameters ranging from 2 to 10 mm. The aim was to investigate the quantitative analysis of detector collimator diameter effect on measured mass attenuation coefficients. It was found that measured mass attenuation coefficients decrease systematically with the increasing collimator diameter. The relative difference was found to be up to around 3% in some cases. The observed decrease in mass attenuation coefficients was attributed to the detection of elastic and inelastic scattered photons from the absorber. In elastic scattering process the photons change in direction but not in energy and get counted under the full energy peak if they reach the detector. In inelastic scattering however, both direction and energy of the scattered photons change. It was seen that most of the inelastic scattered photons also get counted by the detection system since they lose an amount of energy lower than the energy resolution of the detector. It is understood from the present results that it is essential to take into account the experimental geometry when reporting mass attenuation coefficients.