Semiempirical calculation of effective atomic numbers based on the optical approximation

Abstract

A simple approach based on the optical approximation has been made to calculate the effective atomic numbers in simple hydrocarbon gases. The experimental data on ionization, i.e., the W value and |M′|², the dipole-matrixelement squared for ionization, have been used for the computation. The calculated values of effective atomic numbers are compared with experimental results based on studies in binary gas mixtures under α-particle irradiation, and with Hurst parameters. The results obtained in the present work are found to be insensitive to approximations in the computational procedure. The dependence of these parameters in general on the degradation spectrum is also discussed.