A method to determine the K-shell photoeffect cross sections of some rare earth elements

K-shell photoeffect cross sections of the rare earth elements La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Ho and Er have been obtained by a new method, for energies above the K-edge of these elements. In this method, the K-shell photoeffect cross sections of rare earth elements at energies above the K-shell threshold are obtained by using log-log plot of the experimentally measured total attenuation cross sections of their simple compounds. The method does not require any knowledge of the contributions of other competing processes. A simple formula has been obtained by studying the variation these K-shell photoeffect cross sections versus E and Z. This formula provides for an easy and rapid evaluation of the K-shell photoeffect cross sections for any element in the range >57 and <68 and for energies up to 84.3 keV. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.