The absorption of high-energy photons in matter

Total absorption cross-sections of hydrogen, carbon, copper, silver, lead and uranium have been measured for photons of mean energy 94 MeV. The method was to measure the transmission through an absorber of photons from the Oxford synchrotron, using a biased liquid scintillation counter to select photons of energy near the peak energy of the machine. The experimental data for hydrogen have been used to deduce a value for the cross-section for pair production in the field of the electron of 4.7 ± 0.4 millibarn. The relative cross-sections for the heavier elements have been determined to better than ± 0.2 %, and confirm the most recent calculations of the correction to the Born approximation in the theory of pair production.