Investigation of the muonic atoms distribution in materials through muonic x-rays momentum simulation using Geant4

Abstract

Determining the distribution of muonic atoms is essential for µ-X ray imaging. In this study, the generation and de-excitation of muonic atoms in multi-elemental targets were simulated using the Monte Carlo software toolkit Geant4. An approach that reconstructs the production sites of muonic atoms from the µ-X ray momentum is proposed. The imaging results indicated a high simulated spatial resolution of 0.1 mm and a significant increase in the detection efficiency compared to that achieved by the 3-mm pinhole imaging technique. In addition, an analysis of the image quality index (Q) revealed that a superior image quality can be achieved for elements with high and medium atomic numbers. The proposed method has the potential to be further developed into an accurate and efficient technique for positioning the distribution of elements.