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Updated: Dec 4, 2025

Isolation of Quartz Grains for Optically Stimulated Luminescence OSL Dating of Quaternary Sediments for Paleoenvironmental Research
Published on: August 2, 2021
Shielding features of seven types on natural quartz
Claudia Angelica Marquez-Mata1, Ma Jesús Mata Chavez2, Guillermo Eduardo Campillo-Rivera3
1Unidad Académica de Estudios Nucleares de La UAZ, C. Ciprés 10, Fracc. La Peñuela, 98060, Zacatecas, Zac, Mexico.
Abstract:
The shielding features of amethyst, chalcedony, crystal rock, milky, pink, flint, and jasper quartz were calculated. The seven varieties of quartz were collected within the territory of the state of Zacatecas in Mexico. Shielding characteristics include the linear attenuation coefficients, the effective atomic numbers and the mass interaction coefficients for 1 keV to 100 GeV photons. The interaction coefficients were calculated for the coherent scattering, the photoelectric absorption, the Compton scattering, and the pair production occurring in the electric field of the atomic nucleus and the electrons. The linear attenuation coefficients were compared with those of the Portland concrete widely used as radiation shielding. In the low energy region where the photoelectric absorption is dominant the mass interaction coefficients and the total linear attenuation coefficients have three resonances due to the Si, Ca and Fe concentration, these resonances are also noticed in the effective atomic number. For photons below 60 keV the shielding performance of quartz can be used to shield X-ray devices working with less than 60 kV.
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