Attenuation length
In physics, the attenuation length or absorption length is the distance 
into a material when the probability has dropped to 
that a particle has not been absorbed. Alternatively, if there is a beam of particles incident on the material, the attenuation length is the distance where the intensity of the beam has dropped to , or about 63% of the particles have been stopped.
Mathematically, the probability of finding a particle at depth x into the material is calculated by Beer-Lambert law:
.
In general is material and energy dependent.
See also
- Beer's Law
- Mean free path
- Attenuation coefficient
- Attenuation (electromagnetic radiation)
- Radiation length
References
- S. Eidelman et al. [Particle Data Group], Review of particle physics, Phys. Lett. B 592 (2004) (http://pdg.lbl.gov/)
- http://www.ct.infn.it/~rivel/Glossario/node2.html
External links
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