Evaluation of gamma attenuation parameters and kerma coefficients of YBaCuO and BiPbSrCaCuO superconductors using EGS4 code

Abstract

The levels of the coefficients of the mass attenuation (mu/rho) for YBaCuO and BiPbSrCaCuO superconductors and their contents were determined theoretically, using EGS4 simulation code and the XCOM database, and experimentally at gamma-ray energies of 511, 661 and 1274 keV. Additionally, radiation attenuation parameters such as half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) and effective atomic number (Z(eff)) for investigated superconductors samples were calculated using the obtained mu/rho values. It was observed that the theoretical and the experimental values were in agreement. Furthermore, the gamma-ray kerma coefficient k of these elements and superconductor samples was evaluated theoretically and experimentally, based on results of the mass attenuation coefficients determined at the same energies, and good agreement was observed. the theoretical levels of these coefficients were also computed over an expanded energy interval from 1 keV to 100 MeV using the WinXCom program. the results show that the calculated gamma kerma coefficient values of BiPbSrCaCuO had the highest atomic number, which was higher than for the YBaCuO superconductor.