Radiation sensitivity is the susceptibility of a material to physical or chemical changes induced by

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

. Examples of radiation sensitive materials are

silver chloride Silver chloride is an inorganic chemical compound with the chemical formula Ag Cl. This white crystalline solid is well known for its low solubility in water and its sensitivity to light. Upon illumination or heating, silver chloride converts ...

photoresist A photoresist (also known simply as a resist) is a light-sensitive material used in several processes, such as photolithography and photoengraving, to form a patterned coating on a surface. This process is crucial in the electronics industry. T ...

s and

biomaterials A biomaterial is a substance that has been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose – either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair, or replace a tissue function of the body) or a diagnostic one. The corresponding f ...

. Pine trees are more radiation susceptible than birch due to the complexity of the pine DNA in comparison to the birch. Examples of radiation insensitive materials are metals and ionic crystals such as

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

. The radiation effect depends on the type of the irradiating particles, their energy, and the number of incident particles per unit volume. Radiation effects can be transient or permanent. The persistence of the radiation effect depends on the stability of the induced physical and chemical change. Physical radiation effects depending on

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...

properties can be thermally annealed whereby the original structure of the material is recovered. Chemical radiation effects usually cannot be recovered.

References

Radiation effects {{nuclear-tech-stub

See also

References