Internal conversion

Internal conversion is a radioactive decay process where an excited nucleus interacts with an electron in one of the lower electron shells, causing the electron to be emitted from the atom. Thus, in an internal conversion process, a high-energy electron which appears to be a classical beta particle is emitted from the radioactive atom, but without beta decay taking place. For this reason, the high-speed electrons from internal conversion are by definition not beta particles, since these are defined by their method of production, not their composition. Also, since no beta decay takes place in internal conversion, the element atomic number does not change (i.e., as in gamma radiation, no transmutation of one element to another takes place in this type of radioactive decay).

“Internal conversion” is strongly related to:

Internal conversion coefficient Beta decay Gamma ray Beta particle Photoelectric effect Internal conversion (chemistry) Auger effect Virtual particle Wave function Angular momentum Polarization Radioactive decay Spin (physics) Atomic nucleus Electron

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