3 ms·
> Plus, the energy of those alpha particles doesn't just go away, it will be either transformed into highly energetic photons (in the hard UV to gamma range) or
by tzs 2y ago
> Plus, the energy of those alpha particles doesn't just go away, it will be either transformed into highly energetic photons (in the hard UV to gamma range) or it will ionize the attenuating medium, leading to photons from line emissions (infrared to visible to UV) or other ionization-related effects (e.g. an ionisation current in semiconductor diodes).
Why can't it end up as thermal energy in the attenuating medium instead?
- thyristan 2y agoBecause thermal energies are far lower than what those particles are depositing. The thermal movement at those energies would still be ionizing because it would some nucleus away leaving a few stray electrons in the lattice. But of course, sooner or later the secondary, tertiary, ... particles will end up as thermal energy. And of course any ionization always has a thermal component, the lattice will always get a transfer of momentum.