Abstract
In this paper, we describe the results of various calculations performed for a design of the thickness gauges that use the gamma-ray backscattering method. The radiation source is assumed to be the $_{24}$1Am(60keV gamma-ray) and the detector is a single crystal scintillator in a cylindrical form. The source is located at the center of the detector with the collimator of a cylindrical shape. First, when gamma-rays are incident on a material with a constant angle, we compute the variations of the spectrum for the photons scattered into different angular intervals. Next, we compute for an optimal size for the collimator cylinder for a fixed detector size and an optimal distance from the detector to the material. Finally, we compute the number of observed photons for different thickness of two different materials, a plastic film and an Al foil.