Radiation sensitivity is the susceptibility of a material to physical or chemical changes induced by

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

. Examples of radiation sensitive materials are

silver chloride Silver chloride is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ag Cl. This white crystalline solid is well known for its low solubility in water (this behavior being reminiscent of the chlorides of Tl+ and Pb2+). Upon illumination or heating, ...

, photoresists and biomaterials. Pine trees are more radiation susceptible than birch due to the complexity of the pine DNA in comparison to the birch. Examples of radiation insensitive materials are metals and ionic crystals such as

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

and

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

. The

radiation effect Radiation effect is the physical and chemical property changes of materials induced by radiation. Examples *Bleaching of linen *Formation of latent image in photography * Embrittlement of optically transparent polymers such as lucite. See also * ...

depends on the type of the irradiating particles, their energy, and the number of incident particles per unit volume.

Radiation effect Radiation effect is the physical and chemical property changes of materials induced by radiation. Examples *Bleaching of linen *Formation of latent image in photography * Embrittlement of optically transparent polymers such as lucite. See also * ...

s can be transient or permanent. The persistence of the radiation effect depends on the stability of the induced physical and chemical change. Physical

s depending on

diffusion Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...

properties can be thermally annealed whereby the original structure of the material is recovered. Chemical radiation effects usually cannot be recovered.

References

Radiation effects {{nuclear-tech-stub