Forms of electromagnetic radiation
 

Gamma Rays
 

Six years after the discovery of radioactivity (1896) by Henri Becquerel of France, the New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford found that three different kinds of radiation are emitted in the decay of radioactive substances; these he called alpha, beta, and gamma rays in sequence of their ability to penetrate matter. The alpha particles were found to be identical with the nuclei of helium atoms and the beta rays were identified as electrons. In 1912 it was shown that the much more penetrating gamma rays have all the properties of very energetic electromagnetic radiation, or photons. Gamma-ray photons are between 10,000 and 10,000,000 times more energetic than the photons of visible light when they originate from radioactive atomic nuclei. Gamma rays with a million million times higher energy make up a very small part of the cosmic rays that reach the Earth from supernovae or from other galaxies. The origin of the most energetic gamma rays is not yet known.
 

During radioactive decay, an unstable nucleus usually emits alpha particles, electrons, gamma rays, and neutrinos spontaneously. In nuclear fission, the unstable nucleus breaks into fragments, which are themselves complex nuclei, along with such particles as neutrons and protons. The resultant stable nuclei or nuclear fragments are usually in a highly excited state and then reach their low-energy ground state by emitting one or more gamma rays. Such a decay scheme is shown schematically in Figure 7.
 

Decay scheme of a radioactive sodium-24 (24Na) nucleus. With a half-life of 15 for the unstable nucleus sodium-24 (24Na). Much of what is known about the internal structure and energies of nuclei has been obtained from the emission or resonant absorption of gamma rays by nuclei. Absorption of gamma rays by nuclei can cause them to eject neutrons or alpha particles or it can even split a nucleus like a bursting bubble in what is called photodisintegration. A gamma particle hitting a hydrogen nucleus (that is, a proton), for example, produces a positive pi-meson and a neutron or a neutral pi-meson and a proton. Neutral pi-mesons, in turn, have a very brief mean life of 1.8 10-16 second and decay into two gamma rays of energy h 70 MeV. When an energetic gamma ray h > 1.02 MeV passes a nucleus, it may disappear while creating an electron-positron pair. Gamma photons interact with matter by discrete elementary processes that include resonant absorption, photodisintegration, ionization, scattering (Compton scattering), or pair production.

Gamma rays are detected by their ability to ionize gas atoms or to create electron-hole pairs in semiconductors or insulators. By counting the rate of charge pulses or voltage pulses or by measuring the scintillation of the light emitted by the subsequently recombining electron-hole pairs, one can determine the number and energy of gamma rays striking an ionization detector or scintillation counter.

Both the specific energy of the gamma-ray photon emitted as well as the half-life of the specific radioactive decay process that yields the photon identify the type of nuclei at hand and their concentrations. By bombarding stable nuclei with neutrons, one can artificially convert more than 70 different stable nuclei into radioactive nuclei and use their characteristic gamma emission for purposes of identification, for impurity analysis of metallurgical specimens (neutron-activation analysis), or as radioactive tracers with which to determine the functions or malfunctions of human organs, to follow the life cycles of organisms, or to determine the effects of chemicals on biological systems and plants.

The great penetrating power of gamma rays stems from the fact that they have no electric charge and thus do not interact with matter as strongly as do charged particles. Because of their penetrating power gamma rays can be used for radiographing holes and defects in metal castings and other structural parts. At the same time, this property makes gamma rays extremely hazardous. The lethal effect of this form of ionizing radiation makes it useful for sterilizing medical supplies that cannot be sanitized by boiling or for killing organisms that cause food spoilage. More than 50 percent of the ionizing radiation to which humans are exposed comes from natural radon gas, which is an end product of the radioactive decay chain of natural radioactive substances in minerals. Radon escapes from the ground and enters the environment in varying amounts.