Elastic scattering cross-sections of lead, tantalum and molybdenum were determined with the help of a Ge (Li) detector for 1.17 and 1.33 MeV rays between 30° and 115°. Theoretical evaluations of the cross-sections are based on a coherent addition of the well-known nuclear Thomson scattering amplitudes, the Rayleigh amplitudes calculated by Kissel and Pratt and the Delbrück amplitudes given by Papatzacos and Mork. The fairly good agreement between experiment and theory reveals the importance of the real Delbrück amplitudes. However, the experimental results in the 30–60° range tend to lie slightly but systematically below the calculated cross-sections.

The total γ-ray interaction cross-sections on mixed absorbers were determined at 662 keV with a view to study the effective atomic numbers for γ-ray absorption under narrow beam good geometry set-up. The measurements were taken for the combination of metallic absorbers like aluminium, copper, lead and mercury and also for the simulated absorbers by rotating the targets. ORTEC HPGe and NaI(Tl) detectors were used for detection of γ-rays. The experimental results compare favourably with theoretical values derived from XCOM package and suggest the usefulness of the concept of effective atomic numbers and the utility of the rotating absorbers technique.

We have carried out some photon interaction measurements using 59.54 keV γ-rays from a ²⁴¹Am source. These include γ attenuation studies as well as photoelectric absorption studies in various samples. The attenuation studies have been made using leaf and wood samples, samples like sand, sugar etc., which contain particles of varying sizes as well as pellets and aqueous solutions of rare earth compounds. In the case of the leaf and wood samples, we have used the γ-ray attenuation technique for the determination of the water content in fresh and dried samples. The variation of the attenuation coefficient with particle size has been investigated for sand and sugar samples. The attenuation studies as well as the photoelectric studies in the case of rare earth elements have been carried out on samples containing such elements whose K-absorption edge energies lie below and close to the γ-energy used. Suitable compounds of the rare earth elements have been chosen as mixture absorbers in these investigations. A narrow beam good geometry set-up was used for the attenuation measurements. A well-shielded scattering geometry was used for the photoelectric measurements. The mixture rule was invoked to extract the values of the mass attenuation coefficients for the elements from those of the corresponding compounds. The results are consistent with theoretical values derived from the XCOM package.

A $\gamma$ -ray spectroscopy system based on a $1" \times 1"$ NaI(Tl) detector and $1.5"$ photomultiplier tube has been developed at IUAC for teaching laboratory applications involving radioactive sources. Following along the lines of the Phoenix and Expeyes hardware developed in the laboratory earlier, a low-cost, light weight multichannel analyser also has been developed. Here the details about the same are presented. The detector–analyser system has been used as a part of the postgraduate curriculum for measuring $^{40}\rm{K}$ content in some potassium salts and common building materials like brick, cement, concrete and sand.

A light-weight multichannel analyser (MCA)-based $\gamma$ -ray spectrometer, developed earlier at the Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, has been used as part of the PG curriculum, to determine the effective atomic numbers for $\gamma$ attenuation of $^{137}\rm{Cs}$ $\gamma$ -ray in different types of samples. The samples used are mixtures of graphite, aluminum and selenium powders in different proportions, commercial and home-made edible powders, fruit and vegetable juices as well as certain allopathic and ayurvedic medications. A narrow beam good geometry set-up has been used in the experiments. The measured attenuation coefficients have been used to extract effective atomic numbers in the samples. The results are consistent with XCOM values wherever available. The present results suggest that the $\gamma$ attenuation technique can be used as an effective non-destructive method for finding adulteration of food materials.