mass attenuation coefficient

In chemistry, mass attenuation coefficients are often used for a chemical species dissolved in a solution.

In addition to visible light, mass attenuation coefficients can be defined for other electromagnetic radiation (such as X-rays), sound, or any other beam that attenuates.

For the "mass attenuation coefficient", see the article mass attenuation coefficient.

The mass attenuation coefficient is equal to the molar attenuation coefficient times the molar mass.

First, the mass attenuation coefficients of each individual solute or solvent, ideally across a broad spectrum of wavelengths, must be measured or looked up.

This is a convenient concept because the mass attenuation coefficient of a species is approximately independent of its concentration (as long as certain assumptions are fulfilled).

Other common units include cm/g (the most common unit for X-ray mass attenuation coefficients) and mL g cm (sometimes used in solution chemistry).

The mass attenuation coefficient can be thought of as a variant of absorption cross section where the effective area is defined per unit mass instead of per particle.

Tables of photon mass attenuation coefficients are essential in radiological physics, radiography (for medical and security purposes), dosimetry, diffraction, interferometry, crystallography and other branches of physics.

In this use, "opacity" is another term for the mass attenuation coefficient (or, depending on context, mass absorption coefficient, the difference is described here) at a particular frequency of electromagnetic radiation.

The mass attenuation coefficient, also called "mass extinction coefficient", which is the absorption coefficient divided by density (see also mass attenuation coefficient).

Established semiconductor detector technology based on silicon and germanium have excellent energy resolution at X-ray energies under 30 keV but above this, due to a reduction in the material mass attenuation coefficient, the detection efficiency is dramatically reduced.

The mass attenuation coefficient or mass narrow beam attenuation coefficient of the volume of a material characterizes how easily it can be penetrated by a beam of light, sound, particles, or other energy or matter.

In that case, the mass attenuation coefficient is defined by the same equation, except that the "density" is the density of only that one chemical species, and the "attenuation" is the attenuation due to only that one chemical species.