A successful experimental observation of double-photon Compton scattering of γ rays using a single γ detector

The phenomenon of double-photon Compton scattering has been successfully observed using a single γ detector, a technique avoiding the use of the complicated slow-fast coincidence set-up used till now for observing this higher-order process. Here doubly differential collision cross-sections integrated over the directions of one of the two final photons, the direction of other one being kept fixed, are measured experimentally for 0.662 MeV incident γ photons. The energy spectra of the detected photons are observed as a long tail to the single-photon Compton line on the lower side of the full energy peak in the recorded scattered energy spectrum. The present results are in agreement with theory of this process.