Exploring Radiation Shielding Properties of Lanthanide Elements

In this work, the radiation shielding properties of Lanthanide elements were studied using the EpiXS program and GATE simulation, which agreed well with each other, based on some key parameters such as MAC, LAC, HVL, MFP, EABF, and EBF. It was observed that at lower energies of gamma-rays, the values of MAC and LAC are maximum, which decrease with the increase in energy due to reduced photoelectric interactions. Photoelectric absorption edges couple with peaks in attenuation values; peaks for elements of the lower atomic number, La, Ce, Pr, and Nd, appear as two while the peaks for elements of higher atomic number are three due to the additional absorptions by L-shell sub- levels or M-shell. These peaks take place when the energy of photons meets the energy level of electron binding. While Lutetium has the highest and Europium has the lowest LAC values, Lutetium also has the lowest HVL and MFP values; thus, it has the best radiation shielding properties. The EABF and EBF reach their maximum in the medium energy range and then decrease. Lutetium has the lowest photon buildup, and Lanthanum has the highest EABF and EBF values for all the studied elements at all penetration depths.