Attenuation length

In physics, the attenuation length or absorption length is the distance $\lambda$ into a material when the probability has dropped to $1/e$ 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 $1/e$, 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:

$P(x) = e^{-x /\lambda} \!\,$.

In general $\lambda$ is material 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

• http://henke.lbl.gov/optical_constants/atten2.html