Compton edge

It corresponds to the highest energy that can be transferred to a weakly bound electron of a detector's atom by an incident photon in a single scattering process, and manifests itself as a ridge in the measured gamma-ray energy spectrum.

It is a measurement phenomenon (meaning that the incident radiation does not possess this feature), which is particularly evident in gamma-ray energy spectra of monoenergetic photons.

The highest energy that can be deposited, corresponding to full backscatter, is called the Compton edge.

[2] In a Compton scattering process, an incident photon collides with a weakly bound electron, leading to its release from the atomic shell.

[2] The part of the spectrum between the Compton edge and the photopeak is due to multiple subsequent Compton-scattering processes.

Gamma-ray spectrum of radioactive Am-Be source. The Compton continuum is due to scattering effects within the detector material. The highest energy that can be transferred by an incident photon in a single scattering process is referred to as the Compton edge. The photopeak after the Compton edge corresponds to the full deposition of the incident gamma-ray's energy (through a single process such as the photoelectric effect , or a sequence of various processes). Single- and double-escape peaks correspond to interactions involving pair production where the annihilation photons escape from the detector volume [ 1 ]