Importance of Doppler broadening in Compton scatter imaging technique

Compton scattering is a potential tool for the determination of bone moneral content or tissue density for dose planning purposes, and requires knowledge of the energy distribution of the X-rays through biological materials of medical interest in the X-ray and gamma-ray region.The energy distribution is utilized in a number of ways in diagnostic radiology, for example, in determining primary photon spectra, electron densities in separate volumes, and in tomography and imaging. The choice of the Xray energy is more related to X-ray absorption, where as that of the scattering angle is more related to geometry. The evaluation of all the contributions are mandatory in Compton profile measurements and is important in X-ray imaging systems in order to achieve good results. In view of this, Compton profile cross-sections for few biological materials are estimated at nineteen Kalpha X-ray energies and 60 keV (Am-241) photons.Energy broadening,geometrical broadening from 1 to 180degrees, FWHM of J(Pz) and FWHM of Compton energy broadening has been evaluated at various incident photon energies. These values are estimated around the centroid of the Compton profile with an energy interval of 0.1 keV and 1.0 keV for 60 keV photons. The interaction cross sections for the above materials are estimated using fractions-by-weight of the constitutent elements. Input data for these tables are purely theoretical.