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It is well established that ionising radiation is radiation with sufficient energy to remove an electron from an atom. Although since the ionisation energy differs between atoms I'm unclear on how we define at what energy radiation becomes ionising.

So my question is how do we define radiation as ionising or not based on the previous statement.

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  • $\begingroup$ It is a slightly fuzzy line, but generally it is taken in the UV. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    May 9, 2020 at 0:36

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Its a very loosely defined term for sure. However, it is a fairly specific band of frequencies that can do this. For example, infrared or radio waves would not be ionising. Usually this requires a wavelength scales of 100nm or so, so certainly not every form of radiation is ionising.

Edit: Some sources simply define it at 10eV (125 nm), but certainly this is at best an order of magnitude thing, and not really a set number.

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  • $\begingroup$ I guess then as a result of this very loose definition, it can be said that what you consider as ionising would have to differ based on the specifics of your experiment. $\endgroup$ May 9, 2020 at 12:42

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