Radioactivity

Radiation
Radiation: The process of emitting
energy in the form of waves or
particles.

Where does radiation come from?

Radiation is generally produced
when particles interact or decay.

A large contribution of the radiation

on earth is from the sun (solar) or
from radioactive isotopes of the
elements (terrestrial).

Radiation is going through you at

this very moment!
http://www.atral.com/U238.html
 Isotopes
What’s an isotope?
Two or more varieties of an element
having the same number of protons but
different number of neutrons. Certain
isotopes are “unstable” and decay to
lighter isotopes or elements.

Deuterium and tritium are isotopes of

hydrogen. In addition to the 1 proton,
they have 1 and 2 additional neutrons in
the nucleus respectively*.
Another prime example is Uranium
238, or just 238U.
 Radioactivity
By the end of the 1800s, it was known that certain
isotopes emit penetrating rays. Three types of radiation
were known:

• Alpha particles (α)

• Beta particles (β)

• Gamma-rays (γ)
 Where do these particles come
from ?

These particles generally come

from the nuclei of atomic isotopes
which are not stable.

 The decay chain of Uranium

produces all three of these forms
of radiation.

 Let’s look at them in more detail…

Note: This is the
atomic weight, which
is the number of
Alpha Particles (α)
protons plus neutrons

Radium Radon
+ n p
p n
R226 Rn222
α (4He)
88 protons 86 protons 2 protons
138 neutrons 136 neutrons 2 neutrons

The alpha-particle (α) is a Helium nucleus.

It’s the same as the element Helium, with the

electrons stripped off !
 Beta Particles (β)
Carbon Nitrogen + e-
C14 N14

6 protons 7 protons electron

8 neutrons 7 neutrons (beta-particle)

We see that one of the neutrons from the C14 nucleus

“converted” into a proton, and an electron was ejected.
The remaining nucleus contains 7p and 7n, which is a nitrogen
nucleus. In symbolic notation, the following process occurred:
Yes, the same
np+e (+ν)
neutrino we saw
previously
 Gamma particles (γ)
In much the same way that electrons in atoms can be in an
excited state, so can a nucleus.

Neon Neon
Ne20 Ne20 +

10 protons 10 protons gamma

10 neutrons 10 neutrons
(in excited state) (lowest energy state)

A gamma is a high energy light particle.

It is NOT visible by your naked eye because it is not in

the visible part of the EM spectrum.
 Gamma Rays

Neon
Ne20

Neon
Ne20 +

The gamma from nuclear decay

is in the X-ray/ Gamma ray
part of the EM spectrum
(very energetic!)
How do these particles differ ?
Mass*
Particle Charge
(MeV/c2)

Gamma (γ) 0 0

Beta (β) ~0.5 -1

Alpha (α) ~3752 +2

* m = E / c2
 Rate of Decay
Beyond knowing the types of particles which are emitted
when an isotope decays, we also are interested in how frequently
one of the atoms emits this radiation.

 A very important point here is that we cannot predict when a

particular entity will decay.

 We do know though, that if we had a large sample of a radioactive

substance, some number will decay after a given amount of time.

 Some radioactive substances have a very high “rate of decay”,

while others have a very low decay rate.

 To differentiate different radioactive substances, we look to

quantify this idea of “decay rate”
 Half-Life
 The “half-life” (h) is the time it takes for half the atoms of a
radioactive substance to decay.

 For example, suppose we had 20,000 atoms of a radioactive

substance. If the half-life is 1 hour, how many atoms of that
substance would be left after:

#atoms % of atoms
Time
remaining remaining

1 hour (one lifetime) ? 10,000 (50%)

2 hours (two lifetimes) ? 5,000 (25%)

3 hours (three lifetimes) ? 2,500 (12.5%)

 Lifetime (τ)
 The “lifetime” of a particle is an alternate definition of
the rate of decay, one which we prefer.

 It is just another way of expressing how fast the substance

decays..

 It is simply: 1.44 x h, and one often associates the

letter “τ” to it.

 The lifetime of a “free” neutron is 14.7 minutes

{τ (neutron)=14.7 min.}

 Let’s use this a bit to become comfortable with it…

 Lifetime (I)
 The lifetime of a free neutron is 14.7 minutes.

 If I had 1000 free neutrons in a box, after 14.7

minutes some number of them will have decayed.

 The number remaining after some time is given by the

radioactive decay law
N0 = starting number of
 t /
N  N 0e particles
τ = particle’s lifetime

This is the “exponential”. It’s

value is 2.718, and is a very useful
number. Can you find it on your
calculator?
 Lifetime (II)
t /
Note by slight rearrangement of this formula: N  N0e
Fraction of particles which did not decay: N / N0 = e-t/τ
1.20

# Time Fraction of
1.00
lifetimes (min) remaining

Fraction Survived
neutrons 0.80

0τ 0 1.0 0.60

1τ 14.7 0.368 0.40

2τ 29.4 0.135 0.20

3τ 44.1 0.050 0.00

0 2 4 6 8 10

Lifetimes
4τ 58.8 0.018
5τ 73.5 0.007 After 4-5 lifetimes, almost all of the
unstable particles have decayed away!
 Lifetime (III)
 Not all particles have the same lifetime.

 Uranium-238 has a lifetime of about 6 billion

(6x109) years !

 Some subatomic particles have lifetimes that are

less than 1x10-12 sec !

 Given a batch of unstable particles, we cannot

say which one will decay.

 The process of decay is statistical. That is, we can

only talk about either,
1) the lifetime of a radioactive substance*, or
2) the “probability” that a given particle will decay.
 Lifetime (IV)
 Given a batch of 1 species of particles, some will decay
within 1 lifetime (1τ), some within 2τ, some within 3τ, and
so on…

 We CANNOT say “Particle 44 will decay at t =22 min”.

You just can’t !

 All we can say is that:

 After 1 lifetime, there will be (37%) remaining
 After 2 lifetimes, there will be (14%) remaining
 After 3 lifetimes, there will be (5%) remaining
 After 4 lifetimes, there will be (2%) remaining, etc
 Lifetime (V)

 If the particle’s lifetime is very short, the particles

decay away very quickly.

 When we get to subatomic particles, the lifetimes

are typically only a small fraction of a second!

 If the lifetime is long (like 238

U) it will hang around
for a very long time!
 Lifetime (IV)
What if we only have 1 particle before us? What can we say
about it?

Survival Probability = N / N0 = e-t/τ

Decay Probability = 1.0 – (Survival Probability)

# lifetimes Survival Probability Decay Probability =
1.0 – Survival Probability
(percent) (Percent)
1 37% 63%
2 14% 86%
3 5% 95%
4 2% 98%
5 0.7% 99.3%
 Summary
 Certain particles are radioactive and undergo decay.

 Radiation in nuclear decay consists of α, β, and γ particles

 The rate of decay is give by the radioactive decay law:

Survival Probability = (N/N0)e-t/τ

 After 5 lifetimes more than 99% of the initial particles

have decayed away.

 Some elements have lifetimes ~billions of years.

 Subatomic particles usually have lifetimes which are

fractions of a second… We’ll come back to this!