Barium sulphate (BaSO4), commonly referred to
as barytes, can be incorporated, without a chemical
reaction, into other materials such as ceramics and
polymers to form composites. Barytes has been
employed as the absorber rather than other materials
for these experiments because of the high atomic
number of barium. Matter absorbs X-rays in two
distinct ways: either by scattering or by true absorption.
These two processes together make up the total
absorption #m measured.